


One last race

by Bl4ckHunter



Series: Crisis on Infinite Earths [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Not a WestAllen fic, Sci-Fi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25773511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bl4ckHunter/pseuds/Bl4ckHunter
Summary: With the loss of Nora, Barry and Team Flash are trying to keep going in protecting Central City, but when Mar Novu arrives with a message that Barry is destined to perish soon enough in the upcoming Crisis, the whole team has to find a way to deal and possibly fight against this inevitable destiny, while facing off with a new dangerous enemy.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Caitlin Snow & Cisco Ramon, Barry Allen/Patty Spivot
Series: Crisis on Infinite Earths [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1869730
Kudos: 7





	1. Black hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Barry deals with the ordeal from the loss of his and Iris's daughter, while combating a new threat, Mar Novu returns with a message for Barry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is another part of my planned story covering Crisis of Infinite Earths, where we are heading to the Flash part.
> 
> And to get some things straight before I get started, now, you know that I do not like WestAllen at all, but Season 6 made Iris more tolerable and mature, asides from some understandable drama and tantrums regarding Barry dying in the Crisis, but the fact that Iris didn't care that Nora had been lying to them and working with Thawne the whole time, despite knowing what Thawne had done to them all, was the last straw for me and as far as I am concerned, Nora got exactly what she deserved in Season 5. To WestAllen fans, I don't care what you are going to say in her defense, since I could understand at first why Nora worked with Thawne, since she had no idea what he had done to Barry, but her still working with Thawne after finding out that he killed Barry's mother, is unforgivable in my book, as much as Iris shrugging it off like nothing.
> 
> So, in the gap between Seasons 5-6, Barry and Iris are divorced, mainly because there had been too much drama between them and let's chalk it up to them both trying to prevent Barry dying in the Crisis in desperation, which I wouldn't put past either one of them, but I'm still going to involve Iris in the story, since I think she was more mature and tolerable, like Felicity in Arrow Season 6 and I'm going to try to make her more tolerable. And, you guys know how much I like SpAllen, so for the sake of the story, Patty has returned to Central City in the time gap as well after finishing studying college in Midway City and has gotten back with Barry in the time gap as well.
> 
> Plus, in 2x10, Iris even encouraged Barry to be more honest with Patty and tell her that he is the Flash, which should say something.
> 
> And as much as I think that Cisco/Kamilla and Kamilla herself was fine, the pairing was rushed with too little buildup and you know that I like Cisco/Lisa, so yup, Cisco got back with Lisa during the time gap as well.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow , The Flash , Legends of Tomorrow , Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

An alarm went off and lights turned off before emergency lights turned on in S.T.A.R. Labs.

"It's a system-wide power surge." Barry said as he and Iris entered the Cortex and checked the computer.

"It's coming from the Time Vault." Iris said before the monitors turned off. "Are we under attack?"

"I don't know. Whatever's going on started the moment we left." Barry noted as he grabbed Iris before they sped into the Time Vault, where was Nora's message going on loop and feedbacking.

"I wasn't perfect. Please, remember that I love you both and I always will. And I always will—always—always—"

Suddenly, the pedestal exploded in sparks as the hologram turned off. Barry pulled the drive out of the slot but it had been burned to crisps as Iris looked in horror. "Barry, Nora's message…"

* * *

**_Four months later, Central City_ **

The Flash was running across Central City, chasing Godspeed, running down the streets and on the sides of buildings and rooftops before the Flash got ahead of Godspeed and knocked him down and restrained him with power dampening cuffs before taking off Godspeed's mask.

"Who are you and what are you doing in Central City?" The Flash demanded.

The unmasked Godspeed did nothing but let out distorted incoherent noise out of his mouth.

The Flash sighed in frustration before reaching for his comms. "He's just like the others; no language skills, just noise."

"Lovely." Cisco grumbled. "The fourth Godspeed we've caught this summer and still no sign of Mr. August Heart. Just another dummy who can't communicate beyond modem speak. Alright, I'm clocking out, why don't you drop off Godspeed No. 4 at Iron Heights, Barry? I don't think we're figuring out this mystery today."

* * *

_**Later, the Wests' house** _

"This is nice, Dad, we should do this way more often." Iris mused as she and Joe were grilling steaks in the garden.

"Agreed." Joe said before turning to Iris. "Hey, before I forget, congratulations on 'The Citizen'."

"Yeah, well, there's a million people in Central City and I've only got a couple hundred thousand subscribers, you know, I'm no CCPN." Iris said, a little beaten.

"Well, not yet, but in about ten years, it'll be a Pulitzer Prize-winning empire." Joe assured.

"Baby steps, Dad." Iris joked as Joe chuckled.

* * *

"Damn, this is good." Barry said as he was drinking with Caitlin and Patty.

"You know you can't get drunk." Caitlin reminded.

"I don't even care, that's how good this is." Barry said.

Patty chuckled. "Well, I'm hungry, so I hope Joe and Iris are gonna—"

"Never fear, the party's here!" Cisco joked as he entered with Lisa and food in their hands and Joe and Iris laughed.

"Hope that the veggie dogs we bought are gonna be worth it for Ralph." Lisa teased.

"He's still in Peru." Patty said.

"Or Monaco… Texas?" Caitlin tried remembering.

"All that for a missing person's case?" Iris frowned. "That's… dedication."

Cecile then entered with a plate with two bowls of food. "Guys, guys, what are we doing? Baby Jenna is napping like a little angel and I have creamed corn, I have candied yams, I have collard greens. Let's eat!"

"Yeah!" Cisco nodded as they ate the lunch.

"How's the MAC coming?" Barry asked as he turned to Cisco.

"Oh, you didn't tell me you were making mac and cheese too." Lisa said.

"No, the Mental Augmentation Chamber." Caitlin corrected. "Basically, it allows us to tap into the Speed Force to boost Barry's cognitive abilities. It would allow him to see every possible outcome to a scenario at the same time."

"Speed-thinking." Lisa realized.

Barry nodded. "Which means we'll be able to catch all the bad guys faster."

"With all the ones that you brought in this summer, Barry, the D.A.'s office can barely keep up with you." Cecile noted.

"Hey, since the MAC's done, we should take it for a test run." Barry pointed out.

Cisco shook his head, while drinking his beer. "Absolutely not. You know we're still working out diagnostics."

"We could put in a few hours tonight. Get a head-start." Barry said.

"Barry…" Cisco sighed. "If there's anything I've learned since leaving Vibe behind, it's that we all have a work/life balance to protect and right now, mine is tipping towards more beer." He drank from his bottle before continuing. "Besides, I still gotta tweak the mainframe and for that we need—"

Cisco stopped, when Barry sped off and returned with a tablet in Cisco's hand.

"Every time." Cecile muttered.

"…my tablet." Cisco finished lamely as everyone laughed. "Thank you."

Joe then turned to Barry, Iris and Patty. "You guys good? I mean, the last time I talked to you…" He stopped, glancing at Iris and Patty but looked more worriedly towards Iris.

"I'm fine." Iris said, though they were unconvinced. "Really. I've had a lot of time to think and… I just… I guess I wish things had been different." She then turned to Barry. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I should've tried harder to reach Nora. I should've listened to you instead of pushing her towards Thawne."

"Look, dwelling on what could've been is pointless. Besides, we can make our own future." Barry assured as he and Patty smiled at each other and held hands.

"Look, I know we can't go back to how things were between us but I'm happy for you both. Really." Iris said. "And for what it's worth, you have my blessing, both of you."

Suddenly, Barry's phone went off as he picked it. "I gotta go, a break-in at Eastside Industrial."

Barry then sped off as Patty got up. "I should go too."

Caitlin then wiped her mouth. "Guys, I'm sorry. I actually have to sneak out too. A friend of mine from med school needs my support." She got up. "Thanks for having me, it was delicious."

"Bye, guys." Joe said before turning to Cecile, annoyed. "You noticed nobody ain't cleaning it up?"

* * *

_**Central City Cemetery** _

An Indian man in suit was making a speech at a grave as Caitlin was among the attendees.

"My name is Ramsey Rosso, and my mother, Dr. Rachel Rosso, was everything to me. When I was seven, I skidded out pretty badly on a bike she bought me for my birthday. Imagine a scared kid with two scraped knees and a bloody nose. When Mum found me, she picked me right up, she brushed me off, and told me to get back on my bike and ride. I tried, but I couldn't.

It was almost like I was paralyzed, it hurt so bad. That's when she told me that I would heal. That I must never let a little pain stop me from getting to where I needed to go in life, and she was right. I did heal. Enough to grow up and follow in her footsteps. And even though a beautiful life was cut short when she lost her battle to heal herself... She is still helping me to get to where I need to go today. And for that, I will always be grateful." He took a breath, holding back tears.

After shaking hands with other attendees, Caitlin approached him and hugged him. "Ramsey, hi. I'm so sorry for your loss. Your mother was an incredible woman. I'm gonna miss her."

Ramsey nodded and smiled at her as she pulled away. "It means so much that you came. Mum actually saw something of herself in you. Probably because you're both overachievers." Caitlin chuckled as he held her hands and then frowned. "Your hands are so cold." Caitlin turned away as her eyes turned into Killer Frost. "Are you alright?"

Caitlin took a breath and got ahold of herself as she looked at him. "Yeah, sorry, I'm fine, probably just coming down with something."

"I hope not. Doctors make rubbish patients." Ramsey joked.

"It was nice to see you." Caitlin said.

"Uh, Caitlin?" Ramsey spoke up as she was about to leave before she turned to him. "Things have been a bit, um, crazy. Do you fancy coming around for a cupper sometime? For a proper catchup. I could really use someone to talk to right now."

"Of course. Anytime. Just give me a call." Caitlin assured before leaving the cemetery.

* * *

_**Central City Junkyard** _

The supervisor of the junkyard accompanied Iris to a pile of junk as they looked around. "My log says that your father's stuff should've ended up somewhere around here."

"There it is." Iris said as she reached for one of the piles and pulled out a box and opened it to reveal Nora's jacket inside as she picked it up.

"Must be pretty important." The supervisor said.

"Yeah, it is." Iris sighed in relief. "Thanks." She put the jacket back and was about to take the box before a black hole suddenly opened behind the supervisor, sucking him in as he screamed.

"Hold on! I've got you!" Iris yelled before the box was sucked in as the black hole closed and she turned to the supervisor. "You OK?"

The supervisor nodded as they stared at the spot, where the black hole had been earlier.

"What the hell?" Iris whispered.

* * *

"A black hole?" Patty repeated as Iris filled her in, while the CCPD was canvassing the area.

"What were you doing here anyway?" Barry inquired.

"I was following up on a lead. The Citizen got a tip that there were a series of junkyard robberies." Iris lied.

Patty frowned. "Since when do people file police reports for stolen trash?"

"Yeah, well, you know, not everything that's here is garbage." Iris shrugged.

"Everything here is garbage! I hate garbage!" Cisco yelled behind them as he was scanning the junk with his scanner, while stumbling upon some of the garbage.

"OK, have fun with the Ghostbusters." Iris said.

"Iris, if you see another black hole, let us know, OK?" Patty asked and Iris nodded, while leaving.

Barry approached Cisco. "What have you got?"

"This site is littered—no pun intended—with gamma rays and magnetar fields." Cisco said as he showed them the readings on the scanner.

Barry frowned. "What are you saying? Iris was attacked by…"

Cisco nodded. "Yeah. A frakkin' black hole."

Patty took a breath. This was a whole new different type of pill to swallow for her. "OK, I'll head back to the CCPD and ask Joe, if there are any witness reports of a black hole."

Barry nodded. "And we'll head back to S.T.A.R. Labs, see what we can find."

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"That is a whole lot of information to disseminate." Cisco said as he went over the readings with Barry and Caitlin.

"No one's ever extrapolated this much data from a black hole before." Caitlin said.

"So, let's crunch the numbers, find out where it went." Barry ordered.

Cisco stared at Barry incredulously. "I'm sorry, are we even looking at the same screen? Creating a search algorithm for this is gonna be like deciphering a mystery wrapped up in enigma."

"Then it's a good thing that 'Mystery' is my middle name." They turned to see Ralph in a tuxedo entering the Cortex. "The name is Dibny. Ralph Dibny."

They all smiled as Caitlin hugged Ralph. "Welcome back, Ralph."

"It's good to see you, man." Barry greeted.

"I missed you." Caitlin laughed as she pulled away from Ralph.

"Nice threads. Where did you get them?" Cisco asked, eying Ralph's suit.

"Picked this up in the Opal and beyond, my friend. A summer spent undercover with Rolexes and the wealthy elite, following any leads that might explain the disappearance of Sue Dearbon." Ralph said.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this devoted to a case." Caitlin noted.

"Me neither, but this one's a real tragedy. Maybe it was the look of desperation in her parents' eyes, when they begged me to find their daughter. So, what's new in Central City?" Ralph asked.

"We are trying to track a black hole." Barry said.

"Of course you are." Ralph muttered.

"We were just about to start decoding this data stream." Caitlin said as she was about to type away but suddenly, she accidentally froze the keyboard.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cisco exclaimed as he neared the keyboard.

"Sorry. Been having these random Frost-outs lately." Caitlin said.

"For how long?" Ralph asked.

"All summer. It's happened twice in the last couple of days." Caitlin explained.

"Cait, you're probably overworked, maybe take a time out?" Ralph suggested.

"A friend of mine did want to meet for a coffee." Caitlin said.

"Ramsey?" Barry inquired.

"Yeah." Caitlin nodded.

"It's never easy to lose a parent, maybe you should take him up on it." Barry suggested.

Caitlin considered. "I'll give him a call."

* * *

_**Later, CC Jitters** _

"You remembered how I liked my lattes." Caitlin smiled.

"With a bit of cinnamon. Just like Mum." Ramsey said. "You know, of all her CC Hospital residents, she really took a special liking to you."

"She was the first person to realize that I was into cutting-edge tech. It was her letter of recommendation that started my career at S.T.A.R. Labs." Caitlin said.

Ramsey looked down, sad. "I couldn't save her, Cait. Had to watch as her body betrayed her." He looked into her eyes. "Do you know how HLH works?" Caitlin nodded. "Then you know the cancer literally boils you from the inside out. Can you imagine what that must have felt like? Watching her suffer?" He sighed. "That's my last memory of her."

"Don't let it be." Caitlin assured. "What you said at the funeral about how brave she was? Remember that."

"I lied." Ramsey revealed, much to Caitlin's confusion. "Truth is, she was a coward."

"What do you mean?" Caitlin asked, not understanding.

"As a doctor, she knew her chances of surviving were slim, so she just started ticking things off her bucket list." Ramsey said, looking disappointed.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Caitlin asked, confused.

"She should have gone down fighting. Instead, she ran away. I didn't." Ramsey said, all traces of the kind man that had been at the funeral, gone, replacing them with a man full of anger and resentment, much to their shock. He pulled out from his bag a tablet with an imaging of a blood sample. "In HLH, white blood cells attack the body's immune system. A median survival rate after diagnosis was two to six months. Not anymore."

Then the white cells glowed yellow, much to Caitlin's shock.

"Oh, my God, this is a potential cure." Caitlin realized. "But what's the bonding agent strengthening the body's defenses?"

"Dark matter." Ramsey revealed, much to her shock. "I know what are you thinking, Cait. I thought the same thing, too, at first but I've been running simulations for months and they've all been showing the same results. My cure will work."

"Or turn them into metahumans against their will." Caitlin pointed out.

"But I can save lives. I just need the dark matter to start human trials." Ramsey pleaded.

"And that's why you wanted to get coffee with me." Caitlin realized.

"S.T.A.R. Labs has the dark matter I need to take the next step, you have access to it." Ramsey pleaded.

"Ramsey, your research, it's groundbreaking, but using dark matter? That's a dealbreaker." Caitlin said firmly.

"It wasn't when you made the metahuman cure." Ramsey argued.

"That was different. We were trying to protect them—" Caitlin countered

"Well, what about the rest of us?!" Ramsey exploded as everyone turned to him.

Caitlin sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm really am. But if this is what you want to do to find a cure, I'm afraid I have to say 'no'."

Ramsey seethed before picking his bag and looking at her in disappointment. "She didn't have to die, Cait. No one with HLH does, because you could help me stop it."

Caitlin looked at her friend sadly as he walked away. She was about to leave, when the whole café started to shake and she turned around as the glass shattered and a black hole formed, sucking everything in, as people, Caitlin included, were desperately holding onto anything nailed or stuck to the floor before Caitlin held onto a pole.

"Frost, where are you?!" Caitlin cried out, wondering why her powers were not working.

The Flash sped in and helped the people out and the black hole was about to suck both him and Caitlin in before it closed. They both laid down on the floor, panting out, wondering what was going on.

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"Two black holes in one day." Patty said as she turned to Caitlin, while handing her a mug of coffee. "You OK?"

"I should be dead." Caitlin muttered, clearly still in shock.

"That's not gonna happen, we're Team Flash. We always watch each other's backs, we always keep each other safe." Barry assured.

"Meanwhile, over here, in the real world, our black hole keeps growing up, only next time it pops up, it won't just be Jitters, the whole city could be in danger." Cisco said grimly.

"Why did this thing show up outside Jitters, anyway? What does a coffee shop have in common with a junkyard?" Ralph wondered.

"I have an idea." Patty said as she pulled out a file from her bag. "This is the CCPD's list of junkyard robberies." She picked a remote and showed them the profiles on the screen. "Ten of them were persons of interest, nine were career criminals, except for one person. They let a scientist go with a warning after they caught him stealing old lab equipment. Chester P. Runk."

Patty turned on a video, where was a black man in late 20s working on some machine in his homemade lab.

" _Hey, what up, party people? Welcome to a world, where all are welcome and anything, including the scientifically impossible, can and probably will happen. I'm your boy, Chugga-Chugga-Chugga-Chugga-Chester, with knowledge from the bleeding edge of physics and beyond-beyond-beyond._ " Chester gestured around excitedly.

"I really like him." Ralph noted as they all chuckled.

" _And—and yes, as usual, I am fueled by some…_ " Chester drank from a cup of coffee. " _…damn fine coffee from everyone's favorite beanery. Poured to perfection by some special someone._ "

Patty then fast-forwarded the video a bit. "He talks about this girl named Natalie that he wants to ask out for a while and then… look."

Cisco then took a closer look. "Is he building what I think he's building?"

" _Behold, believers, a gravitational wave emitter powered by a modulated neutrino changer, in other words, 'Time to call some aliens.'_ " Chester said, laughing, speaking like some sort of a show host.

"He built this in his garage?" Barry stared in disbelief.

"Using nothing but trash, what a legend." Cisco said, impressed before Chester turned on his machine as everyone looked worriedly. "He's turning it on."

On the video, Chester looked worriedly as his machine started to pulse with electricity and garage shook. " _No, no, no, that's not supposed to do that._ " A small black hole suddenly appeared on top of the machine and touched it before groaning in pain as the video stopped. " _Oh, crap, uh, hold on._ "

"OK, not exactly getting the supervillain vibe from our boy Chester here." Ralph noted.

"He opened a black hole by accident." Barry realized.

"And what about Chester, is he OK?" Caitlin asked, turning to Patty.

"He was committed into the ER in Central City General. Iris and Cecile went to try to get some answers out of him but he's in some kind of a catatonic state." Patty explained.

"Just a tiny question here, how do we destroy a black hole?" Ralph asked worriedly as they turned to the screen.

* * *

**_Central City General_ **

Iris and Cecile went into Chester's room as he just stared in front of him, sitting on a chair, unresponsive to any outside stimuli and were about to leave, when they saw on TV a news report about another black hole appearing in the city and at the same time, Chester was tapping his finger on a table.

"It's Chester." Iris realized before turning to the TV as the realization hit her. "Oh, my God…"

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Cisco was in his workshop, showing Barry a small metallic ball with spikes. "You're looking at the world's first inverse mass angular momentum disruptor, but we can just call it a stellar grenade."

"Cool. So this will destroy the black hole?" Barry asked.

"As long as it doesn't get much bigger, this will reverse the hole's mass-collecting properties, causing it to implode." Cisco said, gesturing and doing a sound. "Just toss it into the horizon, hasta lasagna, don't get any on you."

"We can't." Iris said as she burst in and they turned to her. "If we destroy it, we're gonna kill Chester too."

* * *

"So, the black hole and Chester are connected?" Cecile asked as Iris filled them in, while they were in the Cortex, forming another plan.

"Actually, I think Chester is the black hole." Caitlin said as she showed a brain scan on the screen. "Watch this. So, normally, stimuli enters the brain through the sensory area, goes up to the temporal lobe and then back around, but watch what happens in Chester's brain." She showed Chester's brain scan, where the stimuli surged through the right half of the brain but then disappeared. "It starts in the right area but halfway through its rotation, it disappears."

"I think I know where it's going." Cisco said as he showed them the simulation of the vortex in the black hole. "You're looking at the negative ionic energy inside the black hole." He showed them pulsing tendril inside the black hole. "Watch what happens when an energy pulse travels along its tendrils. See how it stops halfway?"

Cisco then put both scans next to each other as the pulsing energy was going in circles in Chester's brain and the negative ionic energy.

"The black hole is the other half of Chester's mind. It's his consciousness." Cecile realized.

"What if the black holes were showing up where it was familiar to Chester?" Patty realized.

"In places that hold an emotional attachment for him, like the junkyard, where he stole stuff for his projects." Cisco nodded.

"He's got a crush on a girl at Jitters." Barry remembered. "OK, so all we have to do is get Chester's mind out of the black hole, reunite it with his body, and once his condition stabilizes, the black hole should just collapse."

"Right, but they don't exactly teach that in med school." Caitlin pointed out.

"OK, but we can't just let Chester die, we have to do something." Barry argued as the temperature seemed to drop in the Cortex.

"Look, I don't like saying it but I think we need to consider it." Cisco said.

Barry turned to Cisco. "Cisco, I know where you're going."

"And you know we already have a way of beating this before it gets any bigger." Cisco argued.

"We're not discussing this." Barry argued.

"You think I like saying this?" Cisco snapped. "I don't, but we don't find a solution for this and find one now, we're gonna have to make a choice down the line and it's either gonna be Chester or it's gonna be everyone in Central City."

"I'm not losing anyone else!" Barry exploded. "I'm…" He sighed. "Let's find another way."

* * *

Barry was staring outside the balcony, leaning onto the railing as Patty stood next to him. "You OK, Barry?"

"I can't give up on Chester." Barry said.

"That's not what I meant." Patty corrected as he turned to her. "I know what you're doing. You can't use the Flash as a shield for your grief and anger."

"I just thought that if I could save more lives, then it might make up for what happened with Nora and Thawne." Barry said as Patty held his hand. "All the work this summer, all the hours, pushing myself, pushing the team…"

"Barry, you can't bury yourself in work to bury the grief." Patty said.

"Then how else am I supposed to deal with it?" Barry snapped.

Patty sighed. "I… don't know. If you're looking for an easy answer, I don't think there is one."

"It just feels like if there's this weight on my shoulder that I can barely carry." Barry sighed, staring at the city.

"We can carry it together." Patty said.

"It's not your burden. And not Iris's, not Cisco's, mine. All mine." Barry said as he turned to her.

"You're right. I may not be able to carry that burden that comes along with the Flash, but I can carry you. We all got your back, Barry." Patty smiled as she held his hand.

Barry smiled back as they kissed. "Did you seriously go all 'Lord of the Rings' on me?"

Suddenly, an alarm went off as they returned to the Cortex.

"We just ran out of time." Cisco said grimly.

* * *

_**Central City** _

People were running away as the black hole in the sky opened, sucking in everything it could.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"OK, so, how do we get Chester's consciousness out of the black hole?" Barry asked.

"Well, the electrical impulses that make up Chester's mind are just past the black hole's threshold, but since his synaptic energy has a negative charge…" Cisco said.

"…I could use my lightning's positive charge to attract his energy." Barry finished, realizing where was Cisco going with this.

"Like a magnet." Iris realized.

"Exactly." Barry nodded.

"Wait, you're going to jump into that black hole? How are you going to get out?" Patty asked.

"Your Speed Force should protect you, right?" Ralph pointed out.

"What if it doesn't?" Iris asked.

"The gravimetric forces will crush you to a subatomic size within seconds." Caitlin said.

"That's not gonna happen, the Speed Force is a billion times stronger than any gravimetric force." Barry said.

"Even if you do survive the entry, we don't have a way of keeping Chester's mind intact on the way out. We'd need superconductive wiring from a quantum computer to do that and last time I checked, those only exist in the future." Cisco said.

"Nora. Her backup gauntlet." Barry remembered.

"Of course." Iris nodded as she turned to Cisco. "Is it still here?"

Cisco nodded as he got up. "That gauntlet's gonna have the filament we need. I'll strip it out and thread it into your suit."

"OK, Ralph, Caitlin, we need to head downtown and help with the evacuation." Patty said as she and Ralph and Caitlin went out of the Cortex.

* * *

_**Later, Central City** _

Joe, Patty and the rest of the CCPD, Elongated Man and Killer Frost were helping the civilians get as far away as they could from the black hole as it was sucking in everything it could.

The Flash sped up the side of the building and jumped inside the black hole, ending in vast space.

"Barry, come on." Patty muttered as she stared into the black hole before the Flash jumped out, pulsing with lightning.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Barry sped into the Speed Lab, where he threw lightning into MAC, where was Chester in the containment unit as he pulsed.

* * *

Cisco and Iris were in Cortex, observing on the monitor as the black hole closed.

"The black hole imploded." Cisco said.

* * *

Barry, Iris and Cecile observed as Chester came to. "What up, party people?" He then noticed Barry. "Hey, you're the Flash. With the speeding around and the lightning, hey, big fan, man, big fan." Chester then looked around, excited. "Also, where am I?"

* * *

"Chester is doing better. Don't get me wrong, he's still glowing in the eyes with orange dark energy, but he's in really good spirits." Cecile said.

"How long until he gets out?" Barry asked.

"His molecules need to re-stabilize at the subatomic level." Caitlin explained.

"My guess, four to six weeks, maybe more, until he's back to normal." Cisco explained.

* * *

**_Central City_ **

Later, in his laboratory, Ramsey looked at his blood sample and seethed angrily at the results. He used a makeshift sample of dark matter he had created and mixed it with a serum he had created before injecting himself with it. Ramsey gasped in pain before glaring at the photo of his mother.

"I will never accept death. Not like you did." Ramsey growled as he later looked at the analyzer as he put a blood sample in it and was satisfied to see that the HLH markers in his blood were disappearing but then, much to his own shock, his hand turned into a red goo as he screamed in pain.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Iris was about to leave, when Barry handed her the box with Nora's jacket. "You forgot this. At least something you can hold on to."

Iris smiled as she was barely able to hold back tears. "Thank you, Barry. It means a lot."

"Iris… I know we can't go back to how things were between us but I want you to know that you and Joe will always be my family. You may not be my wife anymore but I still need a friend." Barry said and Iris considered.

"Yeah. I think that's fair." Iris smiled as she hugged him. "I just hope you and Patty are going to find what you're looking for. I really want you to be happy."

Barry nodded as he hugged her back before they both pulled away. "Take care."

"See you later, Barry." Iris said as she left.

* * *

Barry was in the Time Vault, staring as Patty entered. "Are you OK?"

"I'm done letting the future be set in stone. It's time for me to make my future." Barry turned to Patty, smiling. "And I want you with me, wherever it may take us."

"I'm willing to see it through if you are." Patty said as she wrapped her arms around Barry's neck, pulling him in for a kiss before the lights went off and then they went on faintly as Mar Novu, the Monitor appeared.

Barry turned to Novu apprehensively. "What do you want?"

"For your universe to survive." Novu said.

"The blackout. You destroyed Nora's message." Barry realized.

"An unfortunate side effect. But I needed to discourage you." Novu explained.

"Barry, who is it?" Patty asked, confused.

"Mar Novu. The Monitor." Barry said.

Patty's eyes widened. "The…" Barry nodded as she turned to Novu. "What do you want?"

"For your universe to survive." Novu said. "Your determination is boundless, Flash, it is one of your greatest qualities, but you cannot avoid the coming Crisis."

"I have five years before I vanish." Barry said.

"No longer. December 10, 2019." Novu said ominously.

"What happens then?" Patty demanded.

"On that day, he will answer the call and make the ultimate sacrifice. Soon, this world will fight for the fate of all the known universes." Novu said ominously.

"I'm not gonna leave my loved ones, there has to be a way to stop what's coming." Barry said as he stepped up.

"I am sorry, but events have been set into motion that you cannot comprehend." Novu said bluntly.

"I don't need to understand them, just tell me what to do!" Barry exploded.

"To survive? You can't. In order for billions to survive the coming Crisis, the Flash must die." Novu said grimly as Barry's blood ran cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to make Iris more mature and tolerable like she was in Season 6 or like how they did Felicity in Season 6 of Arrow , so hope you're fine with her so far.
> 
> A side note, I think it's a bit unfair that they fired Hartley Sawyer because of his offensive, racist and misogynist tweets, dating to 2009-2014, which is quite a long time and well, I'm not defending him but people change and it may be a bit self-serving of him, regarding the apology he had posted in Instagram regarding that but first of all, people can change over years and the least they could have done is give Mr. Sawyer a benefit of the doubt and second of all, part of the blame goes to the showrunners too, considering that they could have checked out Mr. Sawyer more thoroughly.
> 
> Unless they decide to recast Ralph, it makes his whole character arc worth nothing, since ironically, it's about redemption and a journey to become a better man and Ralph had met his future wife Sue Dearbon in Season 6 and it was supposed to be resolved later in Season 7. It would be better to recast the character, instead of suddenly writing him off, considering Ralph's shapeshifting abilities but I guess we'll see.
> 
> Don't get me started on how stupid it was that it was Barry from 1990s The Flash TV series, who died, since from what I had heard, in a lot of aspects, the show was much better than the Arrowverse version but of course, like many other better things than Arrowverse, the showrunners had to ruin it by killing that version of Barry off instead of the fastest cowardly wimp alive.
> 
> But, I will try to follow more the comic book version of COIE, since we all know what a clusterfuck of epic proportions the Arrowverse version of Crisis of Infinite Earths was. Even "Invasion!" and "Crisis on Earth-X" seemed like bigger crossovers than that, which should say something.
> 
> So, what do you guys think? Is it good? Is it bad? Should I continue?
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this.
> 
> With regards
> 
> Bl4ckHunter


	2. Allegra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Team Flash meet a juvenile metahuman, who is framed for murder, while Barry and Patty are coping with the revelation about Barry's destiny in the upcoming Crisis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

Iris had entered the Time Vault to see what was going on after Barry and Patty filled her in.

"Wait, I thought you were supposed to disappear five years later." Iris said, looking confused.

"According to the Monitor, that doesn't happen." Barry said grimly.

"'To save the lives of billions, the Flash must die.'." Patty cited. "December 10th."

"Wait, I thought Barry disappears in a fight with Thawne, not some cosmic disaster." Iris said.

"The article changed." Barry explained.

"If the article could change, we can change the future." Patty said as she turned to Barry. "When a doctor tells you to die, what do you do?"

"You ask for a third opinion." Barry said as an idea hit him. "I need to go see the Crisis for myself."

* * *

_**Central City Courthouse** _

"Thank you for walking me through this one, babe." Cecile said as Joe accompanied her to a judge's office.

"No problem. The suspect is Allegra Garcia. She's 20 years old. She runs a carjacking outfit out of Keystone." Joe said.

"Thanks to her metahuman ability to control radio waves." Cecile read from the arrest record. "That's a new one, how is that possible?"

"Key fobs run on radio transmissions. Anyway, Garcia has been in and out of Iron Heights and juvie since she was thirteen, last week, she tried to hijack a car that belonged to some guy named Salvator Traversoni. He lost control of the car, and, as you can see, he died in the crash." Joe said as Cecile took a look at the photo of the dead Salvator.

"It says here that an eyewitness puts Garcia at the scene, so open and shut." Cecile said.

"Should be with you working on it." Joe said as he and Cecile kissed.

* * *

"Your Honor, due to a preponderance of the evidence, the State intends to seek the maximum penalty against the defendant, Allegra Garcia." Cecile said, handing the judge the file.

"Which is why the defense would like to plead out. My client is aware that a jury would put her away for life and is willing to settle for, say, fifteen years?" Allegra's attorney said.

"Is that true, Miss Garcia?" The judge asked, turning to Cecile.

"I suppose." Allegra shrugged.

"OK, I guess we can save the taxpayers some time." The judge said.

Cecile narrowed her eyes at Allegra, though, since her powers sensed something was off.

"Miss Horton?" The judge asked, as they all noticed how Cecile was looking at Allegra.

"What the hell are you staring at?" Allegra demanded.

"Nothing, just, um…" Cecile turned to the judge. "Your Honor, the prosecution requests bail for Miss Garcia."

"What?" Allegra demanded, confused.

"The defendant is pleading guilty." The judge pointed out.

"Your Honor, I know, it is a bit unorthodox, but… we've discovered new evidence." Cecile lied.

"My office doesn't have the resources to find anything." Allegra's attorney protested.

"We just need a little bit of time to determine if the State wants to pursue a lighter sentence. In the meantime, we request that metahuman dampeners be placed on Miss Garcia, while we continue discovery." Cecile said.

"Councilor Horton, this court appreciates your commitment to fair jurisprudence, but are you sure you want to go down this road?" The judge asked.

"Yes, Your Honor." Cecile nodded.

* * *

**_S.T.A.R. Labs_ **

"Barry, what are you doing?" Patty asked as Barry was entering the Pipeline.

"December 11, 2019. It's the day after I'm supposed to disappear." Barry said.

"Time travel." Patty realized. "Shouldn't you let Cisco and the rest of the team know?"

"Not until I know the truth." Barry said.

"Barry, I'm not sure that's a good idea." Patty said.

"Don't worry, I have this." Barry showed her his comms on which he was linked with Gideon.

" _Hello, Barry Allen, preparing for temporal observation protocol._ " Gideon said.

"I salvaged it from the plinth and built a mobile unit." Barry explained.

Patty nodded as she opened the door and kissed him. "Be careful, Barry."

Barry sped into the Pipeline and circled around before he entered the Speed Force. " _Entering Speed Force. November 30, 2019. December 10, 2019. Warning. Disruption barrier detected._ "

"What the hell?" Barry blinked before he was knocked back and returned back to the Pipeline with a scratch on his leg.

* * *

"I don't understand, why is it not healing?" Iris asked as she and Patty helped Barry with the scratch as he was in the infirmary.

" _My readings indicate that you were exposed to an extra-universal material that destroys positive matter on contact, a substance known as antimatter._ " Gideon said.

"Antimatter? That's new." Iris said.

Barry nodded. "There's a wall of this stuff clogging up the Speed Force." Barry explained. "Gideon, how do I get past it?"

" _Not without additional assistance. Fortunately, there is an expert in the field, Dr. Jay Garrick, formerly known as the Flash of Earth-3._ " Gideon said.

* * *

_**Earth-3** _

"Good to see you again, Barry." Jay said as he treated Barry's wound.

"You too, Jay." Barry smiled.

"You were right. You were hit with a dose of antimatter. Lucky you have speed healing, or that scratch could have wiped you out of existence." Jay said.

"So, is there a way that I can time travel past the barrier?" Barry inquired.

"You wanna tell me why the hell you were time-traveling to begin with?" Jay demanded.

"I needed to see for myself if the Monitor was telling me the truth about what happened to me and I know what you're gonna say about time traveling." Barry said as Jay was about to open his mouth.

"Actually, I was gonna tell you you made the right call." Jay assured as he showed Barry a map of multiverse. "For the past year I've been detecting antimatter signatures across the multiverse. Now, we don't know their origin, but if my algorithm is correct, all Earths could be in danger."

"Then we have to find a way to break though that wall." Barry said.

Jay shook his head. "Ah, your body never could. But maybe your mind can." He showed Barry a small machine. "I built this thing year ago, the neural hyper-collider. It harnesses neural electricity and transfers it across superluminal particles."

"Therefore projecting human consciousness across space/time. You could send someone's mind past the antimatter wall." Barry realized.

"Not just anyone, it's gotta be a speedster in his prime." Jay said as the realization hit Barry. "You in?"

"Yeah." Barry nodded.

"Then let's hustle. I've already had to postpone my dinner plans." Jay said.

"Not any further I hope." A red-haired woman said upon entering and Barry stilled as he saw a doppelganger of his mother.

"Mom…" Barry whispered.

"Barry, I'd like you to meet my wife, Dr. Joan Williams." Jay introduced her.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Barry Allen, I've heard quite a bit about you." Joan said as she shook Barry's hand, who stared in shock, processing.

* * *

_**Later, Central City Citizen** _

"Allegra Garcia. Juvie offender from a criminal family, in and out of juvie system her entire life. The night of the the particle accelerator explosion, Allegra was caught up in a fight." Cecile explained as she showed Iris the file. "Next thing you know, she's got the power to control radio waves. Then, she gets transferred to the metahuman wing at Iron Heights."

"At fifteen?" Iris questioned, looking a bit pale. At that age, it must have been terrible for Allegra in prison.

Cecile nodded. "Mm-hm. Not exactly the justice system's finest moment. Now, here we are, Allegra gets arrested again, but my powers are telling me that this time she's innocent."

Lisa took a look at the file. "Allegra's power is controlling radio waves and that's how the victim was killed. Plus, an eyewitness placed her at the scene. She had a tattoo with which they ID'd her."

"My powers have never been wrong before and I do not want this kid to go down for something she didn't do." Cecile pleaded.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's not guilty." Ralph said as he entered and picked one of the photos of dead Salvador. "See the burn marks on the victim? They don't match a typical car explosion at all. It's like he was burnt and toasty before the car crash. We know that Allegra's powers give her the ability to control radio waves and not heat waves, so…"

"…Allegra might not have done this." Iris finished, catching up to Ralph's thoughts.

"And I told Judge Hankerson that there was new evidence in Allegra's case." Cecile added.

"OK, guys, all we have to do is find it." Iris said.

* * *

_**Later, Central City** _

"Are you sure the eyewitness is going to recant his story?" Iris wondered as they walked down the corridor of the apartment complex.

"Eyewitness testimony isn't always perfect." Patty pointed out. "The environmental factors, emotional stress, even the order of lineup photos might affect their memory."

"I see." Iris nodded. "So, if we can jog his memory, while he's at home, relaxed, it might help us get all the facts straight."

"Yeah." Ralph nodded as they approached the apartment but noticed that the lock had been picked. "Uh-oh." He pulled out his Elongated Man suit. "I always come prepared."

* * *

Patty, Elongated Man and Iris entered the apartment and saw a dead man lying on the ground, with Allegra sitting next to him.

"Oh, boy." Elongated Man muttered.

"Allegra?" Iris stared.

"Hands where I can see them. Now." Patty ordered, aiming her gun.

"We just want to talk for a second." Elongated Man said, pulling out power-dampening cuffs but Allegra raised her hands and burned Elongated Man's face as he screamed and Allegra ran off.

"Hey! Freeze!" Patty yelled, chasing Allegra.

As Allegra ran around the corner, Joe shot her in the leg with the Boot as the restraint held her leg down before Joe pulled out his cuffs. "Allegra Garcia, you're under arrest for parole violation."

* * *

**_Earth-3_ **

Barry was examining one of Jay's inventions and was about to touch it, when Joan entered. "I wouldn't touch that."

"Sorry." Barry said apologetically as he stared at Joan. Even though he knew it wasn't her, he felt like a that little boy who lived with his parents again, even if they were just doppelgangers.

"Jay told me he's a doppelganger of your late father." Joan said and Barry nodded. "Do I remind you of anyone from your Earth?"

"Yeah, you do." Barry smiled.

"Who is she?" Joan asked.

"Someone very special." Barry said, his smile widening.

"Is she? I never thought I'd settle down." Jay teased as he entered and he and Joan smiled at each other. "But I needed a neurological specialist to help with my depleting speed and something just felt right between us. You ready?"

"Yeah." Joan nodded.

"Come on." Jay said as he gestured for Barry to follow them.

"Let's do it." Barry nodded.

* * *

Barry sat down as Joan and Jay were next to him.

"Jay's helmet will help channel the tachyons into your frontal cortex and ignite your synaptic pathways." Joan said as she put Jay's helmet on Barry's head.

"I won't lie to you, kid. Beaming your mind past antimatter wall is… risky." Jay said worriedly.

"I know but right now it's a matter of life and death. Let's do it." Barry said as he laid down.

Jay and Joan turned on the machine as electricity surged through Barry's head, flooding his mind with visions.

* * *

_An antimatter wave obliterated S.T.A.R. Labs and Central City, consuming Patty, Joe, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco and Ralph, among the civilians._

* * *

"His biometrics are crashing." Joan said, reading from the computer.

"I'm also picking up temporal energy readings." Jay said. "His mind has broken past the barrier, it's not just a new timeline he's found. It's billions of them and Barry's mind is experiencing them all."

* * *

_Barry saw Patty being obliterated by the antimatter wave._

* * *

_The Flash kept running until he disintegrated into nothingness, screaming._

* * *

"We have to get him out of there!" Joan ordered, pulling the plug as Barry kept screaming until he passed out.

* * *

Barry slowly opened his eyes to hear what he at first believed was his mother's voice but then noticed Joan sitting next to him, reading. "' _Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a fast-flittering meteor, a fast-flying cloud, a flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, he passes from life to his rest in the grave._ '"

Barry smiled as Joan smiled back. "Barry, you're with us." She showed him the book from which she had been reading. "William Knox. I've discovered that poetry can stimulate collapsed neural pathways."

"Lady Gaga usually works for me." Barry joked, remembering how did Cisco try to wake him up, once he ended up in a coma after being struck by lightning. He then groaned upon trying to get up. "What's wrong with me?"

"The device overloaded your neural synapses, creating a near shutdown, what you're experiencing now is called neural entropy." Joan said.

"It feels like my nerves are on fire." Barry muttered.

"They are. Because you're a speedster, your synapses fire ten times the normal rate, so you're feeling ten times the amount of pain a non-speedster would. You'll feel better in a day or two." Joan assured.

"OK." Barry said, panting out.

"What did you see in there, kid?" Jay asked.

Barry was silent, overwhelmed with what he had seen. "I saw… billions of possible futures. Billions of deaths." His eyes were getting wet. "All that pain... all the suffering… and then they were gone… I felt all of it. Now I know the Monitor was right. I have to die." He tried to get up. "I have to go home."

"Barry, you can't be moving." Joan said, holding him down.

"Please, Patty, Iris, my friends…" Barry pleaded.

"You need to rest now, kiddo." Jay said as he placed his hand on Barry's shoulder.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Ralph was on the stretcher with his face burned, while Cisco was scanning the burns. "Ow. It's not getting less ow."

"I don't understand, I thought Allegra controlled heat waves." Cecile said, confused.

"So did we, but she fired a heat blast right at Ralph." Iris said.

"It wasn't just heat. It was ultraviolet radiation." Cisco said as he looked at his scanner.

"He got a sunburn." Caitlin realized.

"Yeah. From hell." Ralph grumbled, his face completely red as Iris and Cecile stared.

"Look at his face, most UV light gets absorbed by the ozone layer. This was entirely undiluted. If it wasn't for his powers, that 'sunburn' would've killed him." Cisco pointed out.

"So put some aloe on it." Caitlin shrugged.

"Listen, even though UV rays have shorter wavelengths than radio waves, they're all part of the same electromagnetic spectrum." Cisco said.

"So, Allegra must be able to control all the different types of wavelength, which means she could've killed Salvador and our eyewitness." Iris said.

"And I set her free." Cecile sighed, realizing how stupid she had been.

* * *

_**Later, CCPD** _

"OK, help me understand why you pleaded guilty this morning and now you're suddenly innocent?" Joe inquired as he was with Allegra in the interrogation room, with Allegra sitting at the desk, restrained with power-dampening cuffs.

"A girl can change her mind." Allegra shrugged.

"What were you doing at the witness's apartment?" Joe asked.

"Just needed to hash it out with him, prove it wasn't me he saw." Allegra said.

"That's something a detective would do." Joe noted.

"I'm trying to be a reporter, OK? Figured this was as good a time as any to get some experience. Get a story and my freedom. But what's the use? You'll always see me as a criminal anyway." Allegra said.

"You know what I see?" Joe asked as he sat down across Allegra. "I see the scared little kid I used to pick up from liquor store, when she was thirteen. The same girl that I would check on in juvie and who would always tell me to leave. This morning, I get a ping you had escaped from your meta-cuffs and we find you in the location of a dead State's witness. If you're a reporter, how does this story play out?"

"I didn't kill him or the driver. I was trying to find out who did it. I swear." Allegra begged.

Suddenly, Cecile burst in, leaning onto the desk and looking at Allegra with pleading eyes. "I took a chance on you, Allegra. So you tell me right now, who really did it? Tell me who killed these people."

Allegra snorted. "You wouldn't believe me either. I want my lawyer."

* * *

Joe and Cecile went out into the corridor.

"This is insane. This is insane. All the evidence says she's guilty but…" Cecile took a breath. "…my powers are telling me that she's innocent. But not just that, she knows who the real killer is but she's too scared to tell us. I just need her to trust me."

"All you need to do right now is slow down." Joe said.

"What I need to do is find evidence to exonerate her before the trial and I am running out of time." Cecile said.

"That's because you're doing a public defender's work and not your own, you do realize how much trouble you could get into, right?" Joe pointed out. "You let Allegra out of jail for an inexplicable reason and now there's another murder."

"But my powers are telling me—"

"Two people are dead, Cecile." Joe reminded.

"You know this kid. You know her rap sheet, it's petty crimes, robberies. It's not double homicide, that doesn't even add up." Cecile pointed out.

Joe sighed and pointed back to the interrogation room. "I haven't known this woman in a long time and the evidence adds up. We need to recognize that unlike facts, feelings can be fallible."

"Except, when it's your gut." Cecile said.

"She's just a scared kid with no one to stand up for her. You need to stop treating her like a cop and treat her like how you treated Barry, when you brought him in." Cecile said. "You can't blame her for being guarded, when you're unable to accept that the facts are not always correct."

* * *

**_Patty's apartment_ **

Patty stared in disbelief at Jay and Joan, the doppelgangers of Barry's parents after they brought Barry in.

"This is so strange." Patty said.

"It was risky to move him here but he needed to see you, which we understand." Joan assured.

"Thank you." Patty nodded.

"You know, your boyfriend stared at me the same way you do." Joan noted.

"Sorry, you look just like Barry's mother." Patty blushed.

"Oh." Joan gapped.

"Well, Barry's physical will go away but the mental aspect, some of it won't, not for a while. But I trust you'll keep an eye on him." Jay said.

"I will." Patty promised as Jay and Joan left before she sat next to Barry. "So, Jay and Joan are going to scan this Earth for antimatter and figure out a way to stop this—"

Barry shook his head. "We can't stop what's coming. The Monitor was telling the truth."

"Oliver and Kara and everyone else can help. We'll find a way." Patty said.

Barry shook his head. "I saw you, Caitlin, everyone die. The only timeline where you all survived was if I died."

"Barry, you don't really believe that." Patty protested.

"I saw billions of futures, Patty." Barry said. "This is the only way for you all to live."

"So you're just giving up?" Patty pleaded, her eyes getting wet.

"It's the only way, Patty." Barry said.

"No. I refuse to believe that. You don't get to choose to die, Barry." Patty said firmly as she showed her badge. "You see this? Our badges, your emblem, they're symbols of strength. They tell us to go out there and save people. We don't get to choose to die. We would never choose to die. When we hear the call of duty, that's when we're willing to make that sacrifice. The call of duty. Resilient until your last breath. Don't give up just because things are going at seam, Barry."

Barry considered before nodding.

* * *

_**Later, CCPD** _

Cecile returned to the interrogation room as Allegra rolled her eyes. "I told you, I want my lawyer."

"Steven's still on his way." Cecile said and Allegra sighed. "Look, I understand what you're going through."

Allegra took a breath and leaned to the desk. "Do you know what I see, when these cuffs are off? I see radio waves and microwaves and gamma waves and I can't stop seeing them. So how can you possibly understand what I'm going through?"

"You have to let me help you." Cecile pleaded.

"So you can put me away?" Allegra snorted.

"No, that's not why I'm here." Cecile protested.

"Then why are you?" Allegra demanded.

"Because I—" Cecile swallowed and lowered her voice. "Because I'm a metahuman too." Allegra stared as Cecile gave her an understanding look. "I can sense other people's feelings and honey, I can't turn it off either. That's how I know that you're innocent. If there is anything that can help me convince me everybody else, please, you gotta tell me."

Allegra sighed. "I told my arresting officer. He thought I was crazy. I _feel_ crazy." She said the word with disgust.

"Try me." Cecile challenged as she sat down.

Allegra took a breath, looking down. "Back at juvie, the night that particle accelerator exploded, I wasn't alone. My cousin was there at the same time. Esperanza. Talk about bad influences." She snorted. "I wanted out of her gang, so she jumped at me. Next thing I knew, there was this… wave of energy and I got knocked down. Esperanza died in the explosion. At least I thought she did."

"You think she's still alive?" Cecile asked.

Allegra pulled her hair to show a tattoo on her neck. "Esperanza made me get the same tattoo as her."

"The witness ID'd you off that tat." Cecile noted.

"But Esperanza's dead. There's no way it could be her. I mean, it's impossible. Right?" Allegra asked.

Cecile pulled out her phone and called Ralph. "Hey, did you get the juvie records?"

* * *

_**Central City Citizen** _

"Yeah, took a bit of stretching but we got about five years' worth here." Ralph said as he was going through the files with Iris.

"Good. Is there a file on a girl named 'Esperanza Garcia'?" Cecile asked.

"Yeah, there is. And I smell a mystery." Ralph said as he and Iris read the file.

"Inmate was discovered in a vegetative state. She has been taken out of our custody." Iris read.

"Out of our custody into the hands of a very redacted organization…" Ralph read.

They took a closer look at one of the photos as they looked at each other.

"Esperanza's alive." Iris realized. "Cecile, did you hear that?"

* * *

**_CCPD_ **

" _Cecile, you got—get—there!_ " Iris yelled through the static in Cecile's phone.

"That's not me." Allegra shook her head before lights flickered.

* * *

The precinct went dark as a dark-haired woman with a red mask over her mouth in black suit entered and the lights flickered, while she blasted down some officers.

"Bring me Allegra Garcia or burn!" Esperanza shouted.

Esperanza engaged the officers, beating them up before they could react.

* * *

"We gotta get you out of here, come on!" Cecile said, uncuffing Allegra.

* * *

Esperanza rolled away as Joe fired at her. "Get out of my precinct!"

* * *

**_Patty's apartment_ **

Barry answered Iris's call. "Hey, what's up?"

" _Barry, we were talking to Cecile about her case._ " Iris said.

" _Turns out that Allegra had a cousin named Esperanza with the same powers as her. Everybody thought that Esperanza was dead._ " Ralph explained.

"Esperanza must've killed the witness, not Allegra. Now Esperanza can't let anyone know that she's alive." Barry realized.

Patty looked at the message on her phone. "CCPD is in total blackout."

"She's going after Allegra." Barry realized.

* * *

_**CCPD** _

Cecile was accompanying Allegra to the elevator but stopped, when Esperanza fired an energy blast, destroying the switch on the elevator. Allegra looked up at Esperanza pleadingly, speaking in Spanish. " _Esperanza. This isn't you._ "

" _You're right. Esperanza died five years ago._ " Esperanza replied as she jumped down from the stairs. "I am only Ultraviolet now."

"No! I won't let you do this!" Cecile stepped up.

"Then you'll die too!" Ultraviolet fired an energy blast but the Flash sped in to help them avoid the blast.

"Keep them safe." The Flash ordered as he turned to Joe.

The Flash then engaged Ultraviolet but he was barely able to dodge her energy blasts. Light had even higher speed than lightning, putting the Flash in a disadvantage as one of the blasts knocked him down. "Get up, hero. I want you to die on your feet."

"How did that happen?" Barry wondered.

" _Ultraviolet light travels at 186,000 miles per second, which is 80 times your top speed. I suggest a hasty retreat._ " Gideon advised.

Barry then remembered Patty's words. " _You see this? Our badges, your emblem, they're symbols of strength. They tell us to go out there and save people. We don't get to choose to die. We would never choose to die. When we hear the call of duty, that's when we're willing to make that sacrifice. The call of duty. Resilient until your last breath. Don't give up just because things are going at seam, Barry._ "

Barry got up on his feet, remembering how he beat Dr. Light as he sped around, creating speed mirages as Esperanza kept firing around. "Where are you?"

Barry punched Esperanza from behind, knocking her out.

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"Esperanza was hired to kill Salvador, then she killed the eyewitness and went after Allegra, so no one would know she was alive." Patty summed up.

"But who turned her into an assassin?" Cisco wondered.

"That's on our 'to solve' list." Ralph promised.

"Where's Allegra anyway?" Caitlin asked.

"In good hands." Barry said.

* * *

_**Central City Citizen** _

Allegra entered Iris's office. "Hi. I'm looking for Iris West. I'm here about the internship."

"Hi, yeah, Cecile told me to expect you." Iris nodded as she shook hands with Allegra. "Welcome to 'The Citizen'." She pointed to a desk. "You can put your things right over there."

* * *

_**Later, Patty's apartment** _

"I hope we'll see you again." Patty said as she and Barry hugged Jay and Joan.

"It was a pleasure to meet you, Barry." Joan teased. "You keep being the hero we know you are."

"You ready?" Jay asked.

"Yes." Joan nodded as Jay pulled out the interdimensional extrapolator and opened a breach before he and Joan returned back to Earth-3.

"I know they're not your parents, but…" Patty started.

"It's good to have some hope." Barry said as they hugged each other.

"You were brave tonight, Barry." Patty said. "I know you're never going to give up. No matter what the Crisis may give us."

"I'm not giving up. I don't care what the Monitor says. But I'm gonna do whatever it takes to save you all, when the Crisis comes." Barry promised.

"We're in this together, Barry." Patty said as she kissed him.

"But we need to be ready for everything. Even a world without the Flash." Barry said.

"What do you mean?" Patty asked.

"That Central City needs more heroes than me." Barry said.

* * *

_**Ramsey's lab** _

Ramsey turned on his recorder as he was examining a corpse on the slab in his lab. "Beginning biopsy examination on Patient 1-A. Mitch Romero. Male. 40s." He picked a scalpel and cut into Romero's neck, where was a bloody spot with veins branching. "It's my hope that this procedure will help to illuminate the effects of my cure, when exposed to another subject. The body presents no obvious signs of hemorrhaging. But the victim's blood is coagulated with an unidentifiable biological substance. I will run an analysis on the substance." He picked a swab and wiped a sample before putting it under the microscope. "Substance could've been absorbed into the victim's veins prior to death."

Ramsey then heard an inhuman roar as he turned around to face Romero, who had bloody red eyes and veins showing on his body, like from a zombie horror movie and Ramsey screamed before Romero lunged at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've said it before in my story 'Blood feud', but Joe had known Allegra since she was in juvie and should know she's not a murderer, and it was OOC of him not to be convinced of Allegra's innocence, considering Cecile's powers and Allegra's rap sheet.
> 
> And considering that Esperanza's powers were similar to Dr. Light's, Barry could've beaten her easily with speed mirages instead of running towards the blast to withstand it and knock her out, risking his life in the process.
> 
> So, what do you guys think?
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.


	3. Walking dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry chases a mysterious metahuman controlling blood and making zombies, while recovering finding out the truth about his fate in the upcoming Crisis and sharing the truth with the rest of Team Flash and he also has to deal with Frost's increasingly aggressive attitude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

**_S.T.A.R. Labs_ **

"The Monitor was here? When?" Iris demanded as Barry and Patty were filling Team Flash in.

"We were in the Time Vault, right after putting Chester in the MAC. The Crisis that he spoke about last year, it's the same one in the plinth's newspaper." Barry explained.

"Wait, I thought it was supposed to be in 2024." Iris said, looking confused.

"Not anymore. It's coming December 10th, 2019." Patty said.

"Are you sure about this?" Ralph asked warily.

"The jackass lied to you." Frost said.

"We thought so too at first but Barry came to visit Jay in Earth-3 to see the future. It's true." Patty said.

"How did he do that?" Cisco inquired.

"Jay projected my mind forward into the future." Barry explained.

"OK. And what did you see?" Cisco asked.

"I saw a giant wave of antimatter sweeping over Earth. Vaporized all of Central City and everybody in it. Including you, guys." Barry explained as he looked at everyone.

"Great, I'll go mark my calendar." Frost grumbled.

"We still have seven weeks to make sure none of this happens." Barry assured.

"Guys, Barry's right. We've changed the future before, we can do it again." Iris nodded.

"So, what else did our Asgardian cosplayer say?" Ralph asked.

"That was pretty much it." Barry explained.

"Look, I think we all need a breather to think about it." Patty suggested.

Iris nodded. "I'm with Patty, we all deserve a time out to clear our heads."

Frost threw an icicle onto a pillar in frustration as she walked off.

"I have to prepare them on what's coming. They have to be ready to go on without me and I guess I know who to start with." Barry said as he turned to the direction in which Frost had left.

* * *

**_Later, Central City_ **

Barry, Patty and Frost were entering the crime scene in an armory.

"Joe thinks there's a meta-killer that might be involved, so if anybody asks, you're my metahuman consultant." Barry said as he turned to Frost, who was wearing a cap to cover her hair.

"Hey." Joe greeted.

"Hey." Patty said.

"The security guard from a nearby building heard the gunshots. Said it sounded like a war zone." Joe explained as he pointed to the corpse covered with a sheet. "We haven't found enough body parts to determine which crew did all this."

Frost lifted the sheet and examined the corpse. "He's covered in claw marks. An animal did this. Good to go?" She asked sarcastically.

"No, we're not. This isn't animal blood." Barry said as he took a closer look.

"There's two more bodies, or what's left of them and a lot more of whatever that is." Joe said, pointing to some red goo that was around the crime scene.

"Someone or something ripped them apart." Patty said before turning to Frost, who was examining the weapons. "Hey! Frost! What are you doing?"

"There's no ammo in these." Frost said.

"I know these guns. They're charged with dark matter. They're all empty." Barry said.

"I don't get it. Who would kill for dark matter?" Patty wondered, puzzled.

"A coward." Frost said in disgust.

* * *

_**Later, Ramsey's lab** _

Ramsey was clutching his head with an icepack before he felt his breath freeze and suddenly felt an ice dagger on his neck.

"Gotcha." Frost said. "What did you do?"

"Frost! Back off!" Patty ordered as she entered with Barry.

"What are you doing? You're supposed to be following our lead, not—" Barry started.

"Getting a damn murderer to confess?" Frost shot back.

"There's no evidence he's involved. Ease up." Barry ordered.

"Let him go, come on." Patty said as Frost pulled away.

Ramsey relaxed and turned his head, staring in disbelief as he looked at Frost. "Cait? You're Killer Frost?"

"Actually, she's me, Sad Coffee Guy." Frost said sarcastically.

"Sorry about this." Patty and Barry pulled out their badges. "Detective Patty Spivot, CSI Barry Allen, CCPD."

"We're investigating a series of meta-related murders and Caitlin and Frost are our metahuman consultants." Barry explained.

"Dr. Ramsey Rosso." Ramsey said, clearly still in shock.

Patty looked around at the mess. "Can you tell us what happened to your lab?"

"Um…" Ramsey paused. "Somebody broke in, while I was working late."

Barry then saw the red goo on one of the tables. "This same substance was at our crime scene. I think the meta that attacked you is the person we're looking for."

"The guy we're looking for stole dark matter from a stash house." Frost added, narrowing her eyes at Ramsey.

Ramsey took a breath, raising his hands. "I did have a small amount of dark matter here."

"Where did you get it from?" Frost asked.

"From an old colleague, Ted Kord." Ramsey turned to her bitterly. "He was actually _willing_ to help me with my research."

"Someone's out there hunting for dark matter and he's willing to kill to get it, so whatever it is you're working on—" Barry said.

"Look, Mr. Allen, my HLH research is very important. I lost my mother to this disease. Now you mentioned you found a similar substance both here and at your crime scene?" Ramsey said.

"And honestly, it's unlike anything I've seen before." Barry said, shaking his head.

"Well, I am a blood specialist. Perhaps I could be of some assistance." Ramsey offered.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You are not actually gonna trust this guy, are you? 'Cause I don't." Frost intervened as she glared at Ramsey.

"I'm sorry, will you excuse us?" Patty said, as she dragged both Barry and Frost aside.

"People are dying out there, all right?" Barry whispered.

"Look, if Dr. Rosso can help us somehow, the least we can do is consider his offer." Patty pointed out.

Frost considered before nodding before Barry turned to Ramsey. "Would you help us, Dr. Rosso?"

Ramsey smiled. "Please, call me Ramsey."

* * *

**_Central City Citizen_ **

Iris was taking a mug of coffee as Allegra entered. "Morning, boss. I have got the mother of all scoops, and thanks to your new intern, it's gonna be a CCC Media exclusive."

"Actually, you know, I was hoping that you would help me with the new filing system." Iris smiled.

"Alphabetical is great." Allegra joked as Iris chuckled. "So, there was a break-in at McCulloch Tech, nothing was stolen but you'll never guess who the perp is." She showed Iris a photo of the man breaking into McCollough Technologies and Iris widened her eyes as she saw his face. "Get this. Harrison Wells is alive."

"Where did you get this?" Iris demanded.

"One of the McCulloch security guards and I go way back." Allegra explained.

"Nice work. Tell you what, I will look into this and in the meantime, I could use some quotes on that mayor story. The city council's wondering how long this new one's gonna last." Iris ordered.

"Uh, I'd rather do this." Allegra insisted.

"Allegra, look, I understand, OK? I was an ambitious cub reporter once, too. You know, this is great work, but I will take it from here, OK?" Iris said, looking at Allegra with an understanding look.

Allegra shrugged. "Fine."

* * *

**_Ramsey's lab_ **

"Can she hear me right now?" Ramsey asked, eying Frost in shock.

"One, it's Frost. I'm rebranding." Frost said coldly, crossing her arms. "And two, sure. She can, if she wants to."

"Caitlin, I want to explain myself. About purchasing dark matter from Kord Industries." Ramsey said. "I hope you understand if there's any chance of saving more lives…"

"…you're gonna take it. Right." Frost said.

"I didn't want to go behind your back but you refused to help me." Ramsey said.

"Not listening anymore." Frost said dryly.

"And you never told me that you were a meta. I thought we were closer than that, Cait." Ramsey added.

Frost shrugged. "Huh. Guess you two aren't as good of friends as you thought."

Barry entered, hanging up as he entered. "Hey, guys, CCPD got back a DNA match on our meta. Mitch Romero. Do you recognize the name?"

"No." Ramsey shook his head, lying.

"He leads the biggest gunrunning operation in Central City." Patty explained.

"Romero must have been looking for the dark matter in the only place he knew he'd find it. His own stash." Frost realized.

Barry looked confused. "Why rob yourself and then kill your own employees?"

Patty's phone then went off as she looked at the message. "Someone just broke into Mercury Labs."

"A facility like that would have undisclosed amounts of dark matter." Ramsey realized.

* * *

_**Later, Mercury Labs** _

In the lab level, Romero injected himself with dark matter, black eyes and veins on his body, behind him a trail of dead guards and scientists before the Flash and Killer Frost sped in. The Flash attempted to restrain Romero with power-dampening cuffs but Romero threw the Flash away, sending him crashing against a power transformer.

Frost sent a freeze blast at Romero, sending him crashing through the window out of the building as they heard screams down on the street and the Flash stared at Frost in shock. "What did you do? Frost! You just killed him!" He got up and looked outside the window. "We're supposed to cuff metas, not throw them out windows."

"Calm down. Romero is fine. He just got up and walked away." Frost shrugged.

The Flash whirled on Frost. "You had no idea that would happen, when you shot him out the window. You let your anger get the better of you. I thought you had a handle on that." Frost rolled her eyes and turned around. "Frost! That cannot happen again!"

"What, now you're telling me how to feel?" Frost snapped.

"Look, I have seven weeks to teach you how to handle this kind of situation. You have start listening." The Flash pleaded.

"You have to stop being such a crappy teacher." Frost sneered as she walked off.

* * *

**_Central City_ **

Cisco and Iris were walking down the street with Cisco holding a detector in his hand. "The satellite's facial recognition spotted our new Wells less than an hour ago. According to Miranda, it's somewhere in this area."

They heard a grapnel hit a ladder as from above ziplined down Harrison Wells with a beige jacket, a bag strapped to his back and beige jeans and wearing gloves and on his left wrist was some kind of a special device as he was dressed like some kind of an adventurer or a modern Indiana Jones, with short dirty blonde hair.

Cisco approached Wells, offering his hand. "Harrison Wells. Welcome to Earth-1. My name is Cisco Ramon—"

Wells grabbed Cisco by his throat and pinned him to a wall. "Why are you following me?"

"Oh, great, another angry one." Cisco choked out.

Wells pulled out of his bag a small red gem. "To get your hands on this priceless beauty? Is that why? Go ahead. It gives nightmare hallucinations to all of its victims. Would you like that?"

"No!" Cisco protested.

Wells's wrist device started to bleep as he turned to Iris. "So, it's you."

"What?" Iris asked, confused as Wells approached her.

"What's your name?" Well asked.

"Iris West." Iris said.

"Well, Iris—" Wells suddenly screamed as Iris pulled out a Taser out of her pocket and shocked him in the chest as he fell down, yelping.

"And don't you forget it." Iris sneered.

* * *

**_Later,_ ** **_S.T.A.R. Labs_ **

"How will all this help?" Barry wondered as Ramsey looked at the vials of dark matter.

"Dark matter is a miraculous thing. With gene splicing, I can use your dark matter samples to negatively charge Romero's blood. That should weaken him enough for you to make an arrest." Ramsey explained. "But, um… I will need a second centrifuge."

"There's another one downstairs, I'll go get it." Barry said as he went down. Ramsey then started to pick the vials out of the box and put them in his pocket before Barry returned, confirming his suspicions. "I had a feeling about you."

Ramsey froze, realizing he had been caught as he looked frustrated.

"I hoped I was wrong. But I know a desperate man, when I see one. Put them back." Barry ordered.

"No." Ramsey shook his head.

"I can make you." Barry warned.

"Go on, then." Ramsey challenged. "Like you said, I'm a desperate man. I have nothing to lose."

"I thought you wanted to save lives." Barry said.

"HLH isn't just my mother's disease. First it killed her, and now it's killing me." Ramsey said bitterly.

"I still can't let you take those. Look at what it did to Mitch Romero." Barry pleaded.

"I am marking a calendar every day until I die, waiting to fall off a cliff, powerless to grab onto anything or anyone. I watched my mother dive off that same cliff with a smile on her face. She didn't even fight." Ramsey said in disgust.

"I know what it's like to lose your mother. I know you're angry." Barry said, looking at Ramsey in sympathy.

"This isn't anger. This is the pain beneath my anger. It takes courage to fight death." Ramsey sneered.

"Maybe it takes more to accept it." Barry pointed out, remembering his fate in the Crisis.

Ramsey noticed the look in Barry's eyes. "My mum had that same look on her face when she was first diagnosed. You're a dead man too, aren't you, Barry?" Barry didn't have a chance to deny as Ramsey smiled in satisfaction, getting the answer he wanted. "So why don't you fight for yourself?"

"I'm marking my calendar with the days I have to live. And I'm gonna spend them saving as many people as I can." Barry said.

Ramsey snorted. "You're not a coward. You're just naïve."

Ramsey picked his jacket, about to leave, when Barry spoke up. "Mitch Romero's still out there. You said you wanted to save lives. Prove it. Help me stop him. Or get out of my lab."

Ramsey considered before putting his jacket down and giving Barry back the vials with dark matter. "Let's get to work." He shook his head, turning to Barry. "You know, I don't understand you, Barry. You march towards death without fear, just like Mum. Where is it you get your strength?"

"Probably the same place she did. People I love." Barry said.

"I see." Ramsey nodded. "Well, it must've been incredibly hard to tell them."

Barry was silent. He had not told everyone yet that he was going to die in the Crisis but he was in no mood to argue with Ramsey again.

* * *

**_Central City Citizen_ **

Wells was on Iris's couch, unconscious as Cisco read the nametag on Wells's belt. "According to his techno fanny pack, this belongs to Dr. Harrison Nash Wells."

Nash came to and got up, startled.

"Easy. We're not gonna hurt you." Cisco said, raising his hands.

"No. Let's just try this again. I'm Iris West. This is Cisco Ramon. And we are friends of the Council of Wells." Iris said.

"Oh. Those idiots." Nash rolled his eyes before aiming at them with the device on his wrist. "OK, now."

"OK, listen, I tased you once before and I'm happy to do it again, so just…" Iris gestured for Nash to back off.

"I let you do that, now, hold still." Nash was about to scan them before Cisco gestured for Nash to lower his hand.

"Uh, uh, uh. What are you doing on our Earth?" Cisco asked.

"What am I doing? I'm searching for an artifact that happens to contain the same particles I'm currently reading off you." Nash said as he scanned both Iris and Cisco and then frowned at the results.

"What, what part—particles of what?" Cisco demanded.

"Eternium." Nash said.

"Eternium?" Cisco repeated as he and Iris stared at Nash as if he was crazy.

"Eternium is a mulitversal element, alright? Although the readings were stronger in the alley." Nash said as he looked at his scanner.

"Listen, Indiana, I don't know how they do things on you Earth, but this ain't 'Temple of Doom.' And what is Eternium supposed to be, anyway? Some kind of stolen mystical element from the tiki gods that you suddenly have to return?" Cisco demanded as Iris tried to suppress her laughter.

Nash shook his head. "Look, there's no such thing as mystical mumbo jumbo or gods. What there are, are metahumans, aliens and false gods worshipped by simpleminded people that find comfort in myths. I dispel those myths. You people are no help."

"News flash, Nash." Cisco said as Nash picked his bag. "We've actually danced this dance before."

"Is that right?" Nash challenged.

"That's right. It usually starts off rocky, especially between you and me, but eventually, we bond, and you learn to embrace that sensitive side." Cisco said as Nash smiled, amused as Cisco tapped Nash's chest. "So why don't you just drop the act and show me that warm, compassionate, smart guy that I know you to be."

"Let me ask you a question. Do I look like I want to hold hands?" Nash challenged and was about to pick his belt of gadgets, when Cisco snatched it from his hands and Nash smirked, amused. "Interesting."

"If you want your toys back, you might just have to." Cisco challenged.

Nash smirked before suddenly, an explosion went off, filling Iris's office with smoke as Cisco and Iris and when it dissipated, Nash was gone with his gadgets.

"Well, I have to admit, that was pretty cool." Cisco said.

They then noticed Allegra staring outside the window as she tapped the glass, realizing that she had been watching the whole situation the whole time as she looked at Iris in shock.

"Does she know about the multiverse?" Cisco asked.

"She kind of does now. I'll handle it." Iris said awkwardly.

* * *

"I got the quotes for the mayor story, and I finished your filing. Everything's alphabetical. Also, I quit." Allegra said as she picked her bag, about to leave.

"Allegra, wait." Iris said.

"You know why I was even out here? Enjoying the sun. You don't get much of that in Iron Heights." Allegra sneered as Iris looked at her in sympathy. "I spent five years locked up there, and it taught me how to tell the difference between a snitch and a liar. You're not a snitch."

"Allegra, it's not what you think." Iris pleaded.

"Forget it. I've wasted enough time behind bars, I'm not wasting any more working for a liar. So be honest with me or I'm out of here." Allegra said.

Iris sighed. "OK. You're right. I was lying to you, but I can't tell you the truth about Harrison Wells, not yet. I do believe in you, Allegra, I think you have great instincts, and I think you're gonna make a great reporter. That's why I took a chance on you, now I'm asking you to take a chance on me, OK? Trust me. When the time is right, I will tell you everything, I promise."

Allegra considered before nodding. "We're journalists. It's our job to tell people the truth, not control it, even if it's tough to say or hard as hell to hear. Just saying, boss." She considered before turning around. "See you in the morning."

Iris relaxed, glad that Allegra came around, at least for now.

* * *

**_S.T.A.R. Labs_ **

In a gym, Frost was stabbing a dummy with her ice dagger, when Barry entered.

"Come to lecture me some more?" Frost asked sarcastically.

"Look, I know you think that you fight better when you're angry, so why don't you try and hit a real target?" Barry challenged.

Frost smirked as she attempted to stab Barry but he dodged all her attacks.

"Stop trying to hit me and hit me. Or why don't you just tell me the truth about what's hurting you?" Barry said.

Frost glared as she threw the dagger at the dummy's chest. "I don't wanna die, when I've just started living, OK?" She snapped as Barry looked at her in sympathy. "I finally have the chance to live a life, and now this stupid Crisis is gonna take it all away?"

"I know it's not fair." Barry nodded.

"Do you know that Baskin-Robbins has thirty-one different flavors? I might die before I get to figure out which one is my favorite or my favorite song or have my first birthday party years. 30 years of existing, and I have never had one. That really sucks." Frost snapped.

"Frost, there's always gonna be a crisis or some metahuman that's threatening to take away the life that you love. Truth is, we're all living on borrowed time." Barry said.

"So, what, everybody feels this crappy all the time?" Frost asked sarcastically before considering. "That actually does kind of make me feel better."

"It's why you can't let the threat of losing tomorrow keep you from making the most of today." Barry said.

"I want to spend the rest of today making sure that Mitch Romero doesn't hurt anyone else." Frost said.

* * *

Ramsey was in the lab, examining the blood samples, intrigued. "What are you?" He then heard creaking as he looked around and heard snarling. He turned around and next thing he knew, Ramsey was pinned to a locker with Romero holding him by his throat. "Let me go." Ramsey choked. Much to his surprise, Romero let go as Ramsey stared. He backed away but Romero did too. Ramsey then raised his hand and realized that Ramsey was mimicking his moves until Barry entered and got on guard.

"Romero!" Barry yelled as Romero turned to him and Barry turned to Ramsey, assuming he was in danger. "Ramsey, don't move." He then showed Romero a vial of dark matter in his hand. "You want this?" Romero growled. "Yeah, come and get it. Come on!" Barry ran off as Romero followed him. "Come and get it!" He tapped his comms. "Frost, Patty, Romero's heading to the Pipeline." Barry entered the cell, waving the vial in front of Romero. "Come on!" As Romero rushed at Barry, he used his superspeed to dodge and get out before locking up the cell, trapping Romero in.

Frost and Patty rushed in. "It's over?"

"Oh, I missed all the fun." Frost drawled.

"Next time we have to lock up an undead meta, he's all yours." Barry said dryly as he turned to Frost.

"Uh, Barry…" Patty started as they saw Romero banging on the glass as it cracked. Next thing they knew, Romero smashed the door, knocking them down.

Romero went out and injected himself with the dark matter that Barry had dropped.

"Looks like meta-cuffs aren't gonna work on him." Patty noted.

Frost froze Romero's legs as she then got an idea. "Dark matter fuels his rage." She turned to Barry.

"All right, get back, I'm gonna throw a lightning bolt at him." Barry ordered.

"No, no, no, I have a better idea. Get me all the dark matter in S.T.A.R. Labs, now." Frost ordered.

"That's gonna get him stronger." Barry protested.

"No, it's gonna make him angry and I'm pretty sure if we give it to him, he'll overdose. Trust me." Frost said. Barry then sped off and returned with a box of vials of dark matter. "Rage on this, Romero."

Barry then sped around Romero, injecting him with as much dark matter as he could.

Romero then spasmed and exploded in goo, covering Barry and Frost.

Frost groaned as she looked at her hair. "You were right. Anger does cloud judgement."

* * *

"No breaks, just bruising. You got lucky." Frost said as she examined Ramsey.

"I must be off." Ramsey said, about to leave as he picked his jacket.

"Ramsey, hey." Barry stepped up. "I know we didn't see eye to eye today but thanks for your help. If you ever want to talk…"

Ramsey nodded. "Thanks, but I'm fine." He placed his hand on Barry's shoulder before leaving. "See you in the next life, Barry."

* * *

_**Later, Ramsey's lab** _

Ramsey examined the samples of Romero's blood, turning on the recorder. "I have a new theory. I believe I have found an effective cure for the HLH. One that would eliminate the need for dark matter entirely. Analysis of Mitch Romero's blood reveals that when infused with healthy blood cells, it can create even stronger biological substance. This substance appears to heal any and all weaknesses in the human body, including the cells affected by HLH. I will now commence human trials."

Ramsey opened a vial with Romero's blood as he absorbed it through his hand as his eyes turned pitch black.

"I need more." Ramsey breathed out.

* * *

**_Later, S.T.A.R. Labs_ **

"I don't know how to tell them." Barry whispered.

"I'm here for you." Patty assured. "Let's tell them together."

* * *

"There's something Barry wants to tell you all guys, that he hasn't told you about the Crisis." Patty said, turning to Barry as they met with Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph and Iris in the Cortex.

"You guys deserve to know the truth. The Monitor didn't just warn me that the Crisis was coming early. There was something else that he said had to happen. When I projected my mind forward, I saw billions of possible futures. The only timeline, where everyone survives was the one where I died." Barry revealed, much to their shock. "I have to die in the Crisis. None of you can try and save me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you guys think?
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.


	4. A desperate man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry, Cisco and Nash try to find a way to save Ramsey, who is dying and desperately trying to find a way to save his own life, but unknowing to them, Cisco himself has some different plans due to his own despair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

_**Central City General** _

A doctor was in the reception, going through some papers and turned around, startled to face Ramsey. "Dr. Rosso."

"Didn't mean to sneak up on you like that." Ramsey said.

"Well, it's almost Halloween, I guess we're all due for a good scare, right?" The doctor joke as Ramsey nodded. "What brings you here so late?"

Ramsey cleared his throat. "I'm meeting up with a colleague. I told him I'd be here half an hour ago, so… if you'll excuse me."

"Of course, it's good to see you." The doctor nodded.

Ramsey smiled before walking down the corridor and breaking into the labs, staggering on his feet and groaning before he opened the refrigerator and picked the bags of blood, draining them into his hands as his eyes turned black and black veins appeared on his body.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"I wish it didn't have to be this way." Barry said as everyone was staring and processing.

"And you're OK with all of this?" Cisco asked.

"No, but…" Barry took a breath. "I have to accept that there are still others out there that we can save."

"We have to be ready. In six weeks, it's gonna be all of our lives in danger." Patty said.

"Yes, but what about him?" Cisco turned to Barry. "I'm not just gonna wait around for him to get vaporized by antimatter, we should be doing something to try to save his life."

"You can't." Barry said as Cisco shook his head in exasperation. "You can't, Cisco. That's why I need you to stop worrying about me."

"If Barry had another option, we'd be doing it. I think you gotta get behind it." Caitlin said.

"Yeah. I am." Cisco said after a moment as he left.

"How do you convince your best friend not to save your life?" Barry wondered.

"You're the teacher. You'll find a way." Caitlin assured before Barry's and Patty's phone went off and they looked at the message.

"Work. Barry, let's go." Patty ordered.

* * *

_**Central City Medical Center** _

Barry and Patty had entered the lab as the CCPD had made the place a crime scene.

"There they are. So much for my day off." Joe muttered.

"What do we have here?" Patty asked.

"It's a creepy one. Somebody broke into this facility last night and stole ten liters of blood." Joe explained.

"And no one saw anything on the security footage?" Patty inquired.

Joe shook his head. "There's no cameras in this part of the hospital."

"You think this is meta-related?" Barry asked.

"I'm asking you." Joe shrugged.

Barry looked around. "I mean… meta-thieves usually make a way bigger mess." He knelt down and examined the broken lock. "See this lock? The way this is sheared, a power saw could've done this. I don't know, maybe it was just some kids pulling a Halloween prank."

Joe relaxed and nodded. "Good, I thought we were dealing with some kind of a meta-vampire."

"Let's just hope it's a normal criminal with a diseased mind." Patty said.

"Well, since I am captain, I'm gonna go watch the second half of the game. I'm gonna leave this to you, all right?" Joe said and Barry and Patty nodded before Joe noticed their looks. "You OK?"

"Yeah, it's just that Cisco didn't take the whole Crisis thing so well." Patty explained.

Joe nodded as he turned to Barry. "Let me guess which part. Cisco is a whole lot like you. It is in his nature to want to save lives. Especially under these circumstances. I'll see you later."

"Right." Barry nodded before an idea hit him as Joe was leaving. Thanks, Joe."

"Thank for what?" Joe asked.

"I think I know how to get through to Cisco." Barry said.

* * *

**_Later, S.T.A.R. Labs_ **

"I got your text. What is it now?" Cisco asked as he entered the lounge.

"I know you're upset about this Crisis. And I've been thinking about it and you're right. We can do more than prepare for a fight. You can save a life." Barry said.

Cisco smiled. "I knew you'd come around."

Barry shook his head as Cisco frowned. "No, Cisco, it's not me. We're gonna save Ramsey Rosso."

Cisco processed for a moment. "Here's the thing. We've done some insane things at S.T.A.R. Labs over the last few years but curing a rare blood cancer, that is beyond our resources."

"So we just shouldn't try?" Barry demanded.

"So we try and somehow succeed, are we supposed to spend the rest of your time here trying to save everyone who's been diagnosed with cancer?" Cisco demanded.

"We start with one man." Barry reasoned as Cisco sighed. "Look, you heard what Caitlin said about Ramsey. He's one of the most brilliant doctors on the planet. I need you to back me on this. You'll understand soon enough. Look, what would it take to cure HLH?"

"Honestly, an act of God." Cisco admitted.

"Or… an act of science." They turned to see Nash climb up on the balcony. "And I know just where to find one."

"I'm assuming this is the Wells that you were telling me about." Barry realized as he eyed Nash.

"Yep. Nash Wells. Multiversal explorer and provider of scientific miracles." Nash said as he neared Barry. "You, I'm guessing, are Barry Allen, the Flash."

Barry stared in shock. "How… how did you—"

"Hidden surveillance device." Nash revealed.

"You bugged S.T.A.R. Labs?" Cisco demanded.

"No, no, not exactly. I… I bugged you." Nash pointed at Cisco.

"No, you didn't." Cisco shook his head.

"Yeah, I did." Nash smirked and Cisco immediately started to pat himself down for bugs. "Fellas, I've been listening to your conversations, and I have a proposition. Now, I need an anti-vibrational crypto-circuit to complete my work on this Earth, you need help with your mission, right? Well, you build me my circuit, because I know you have the capacity and I will lead you to something priceless that will surely help your mission."

"Your work? What's your work?" Barry inquired.

"It's thermic excavation." Nash explained.

"You're a cosmic myth-buster, who also happens to be a geologist?" Cisco demanded, staring in disbelief, while examining his shoe.

"Sure." Nash nodded.

"Sure." Barry nodded as he and Cisco went aside, not trusting another Wells's hidden agenda.

"Red flag city." Cisco whispered.

Barry nodded. "Yeah. Then again, Wells usually shows up for a reason."

"Fellas, you're aware he's still bugged, right?" Nash smirked.

"Where is the bug, I don't see anything!" Cisco snapped, whirling on Nash.

"Not in your shoe, I can tell you that much." Nash said.

"Let's just say that we trust you, which we obviously don't." Barry said, turning to Nash.

"Understood." Nash nodded.

"What are you offering?" Barry asked.

"I'm offering you something that will help you save Ramsey Rosso's life." Nash said and Barry looked intrigued.

* * *

**_Later, McCulloch Technologies_ **

Barry, Cisco and Nash were outside McCulloch Technologies building in a van as Nash showed them the blueprints on the computer. "It's in there. McCulloch Technologies."

"What is?" Cisco asked.

"Well, this extremely rare bio-regenerative serum capable of healing organic tissue, no matter what the harm. So for your purposes, what you do, you simply inject it into your friend's healthy cells, those healthy cells replicate, they replace the unhealthy cells. Presto. Instant miracle. Although, don't wait until your buddy's too far gone because then it might not work." Nash explained.

"This sounds way too good to be true." Cisco said, looking skeptical.

"Yeah, he's right. I mean, how did McCulloch Technologies develop something this advanced?" Barry added.

"They didn't develop it, they stole it. It's from Swan Moon." Nash corrected.

"The Dominator home planet?" Cisco demanded.

"Yeah, that's the one, recovered from some invasion three years ago." Nash said and Barry and Cisco winced. "Anyway, blah, blah, blah, you guys in or what?"

"Well, how dangerous weapon can it be in the wrong hands?" Barry asked.

"On a scale of one to ten, twelve." Nash said.

"We gotta get our hands on this thing." Cisco ordered.

"All right, I'm gonna disable the exterior security cameras." Barry said as he sped off.

"How'd you know the stuff was here?" Cisco asked, turning to Nash curiously.

Nash shrugged. "Kid, multiversal explorer, we need to know things."

"And the serum, could it protect someone from antimatter?" Cisco inquired.

"I expect that goes without saying." Nash admitted and Cisco looked intrigued before Barry sped in.

"Cameras are down." Barry said.

"All right, boys. Here's where the fun begins." Nash said as he picked his belt of gadgets.

* * *

Barry, Cisco and Nash were sneaking through the corridor before guards showed up, aiming their guns. "Freeze! Both of you!"

"Both of us?" Cisco frowned as he and Barry noticed that Nash had vanished. Next thing they knew, a high-pitch sound went off and red lights flickered in the corridor as Nash jumped down from above, knocking out the guards before he tapped his wrist device.

"NASH?" Barry demanded loudly.

"Hey, fellas." Nash smirked. "So, your auditory nerves—"

"WHAT?" Barry yelled.

"Will be fine in a few minutes, unlike these two. Now, where were we?" Nash smirked as Barry's and Cisco's hearing recovered.

"All right, let's hurry up, there's another life at stake besides our own." Barry said as he and Cisco followed Nash.

Unnoticed to Barry or Nash, Cisco placed a small device on the wall.

* * *

"All right. Let the search begin." Nash said as they entered the storage room.

"Oh, man. Without superspeed, this is gonna take a minute." Cisco said as they looked around.

"We don't have to search every location, just the cold ones, OK? Because the serum we're looking for, it requires an environment of -15 degrees." Nash said.

"This says -15 degrees." Barry said as he noticed a cold storage unit where the thermostat showed -15 degrees.

"Well, there you go." Nash shrugged.

"Time to steal our golden idol." Cisco said as he plugged his tablet into the lock before heard something. "Did you guys hear that?"

"No." Nash shook his head.

"I didn't hear anything." Barry said.

Cisco discreetly pressed a button on his tablet as the device Cisco had planted in the corridor, made an alarm sound.

"Wait, I heard that, is that alarm?" Barry asked.

"It better not be. I need more time to hack this." Cisco said.

"I'm on it." Nash said as he ran off.

"I'm gonna follow him." Barry said, following Nash and Cisco opened the storage unit and picked the vial with the serum before hiding it in his jacket as Barry returned. "I don't know where he went."

"I got it." Cisco said, opening the storage unit and Barry paled to see that it was empty.

"No." Barry said.

"We're too late." Cisco said.

"No, this can't be happening." Barry protested.

"McCulloch must have already sold it." Cisco said.

"We needed this to save Ramsey." Barry sighed.

"Boys, we got company." Nash said as he burst in and closed the door behind him. "Always wanted to say that. Here. Catch." He threw towards Barry and Cisco some metallic marbles.

"What is this?" Cisco demanded.

"This is our way out of here." Nash said.

"What are you talking about, what are we supposed to do with this?" Barry demanded.

"It's easy, you just throw it." Nash said as guards entered. "Like, now!"

Barry, Cisco and Nash threw the marbles on the ground as they exploded in smoke…

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

…and a moment later, they ended back in the lounge in S.T.A.R. Labs as Barry and Cisco coughed out, while the smoke dissipated.

"Well, that was exciting, wasn't it, fellas?" Nash teased.

Cisco looked around in confusion. "The lounge? How did we—"

"Worry less about how we got to the lounge and more about building my crypto-circuit." Nash said.

Barry shook his head. "That's not happening anymore."

"Let me correct you, Barry Allen, yes, it is. We had a deal, I would lead you to something priceless, which I did, not my fault the serum was gone. So now you two are gonna build me a device." Nash said as Barry and Cisco looked at each other and shook their heads in frustration, having enough of another insufferable Wells.

* * *

Cisco was in his workshop building Nash's device as Barry entered.

"You know, Nash isn't going anywhere until he gets this cryptocircuit. How's it coming?" Barry asked.

"Almost finished." Cisco said.

"All right. I don't know if you should." Barry considered.

"OK, what do you mean?" Cisco asked as he stopped.

"I mean, doesn't something feel off about all this?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, I know, the guy shows up needing our tech, makes a bargain to help us, and conveniently, the thing we need isn't there." Cisco muttered.

"Right. So, I mean, you think he's lying to us?" Barry asked.

"It wouldn't be the first time a Wells had a secret agenda." Cisco noted, trying to get Barry to drop the subject.

Barry sighed and turned and froze, when he noticed a cold storage unit, conveniently set on -15° C. "Yo, what's in here?"

"That's storage for Frost's stuff. You know how she gets." Cisco lied, not looking at Barry.

Barry immediately saw through Cisco's lie. "You haven't looked me in the eye since I came in here."

Barry opened the storage unit and Cisco widened his eyes. "Wait—"

Barry stared to see the serum before turning to Cisco. "What the hell am I looking at?" Cisco avoided meeting Barry's eyes. "Cisco."

Cisco closed the storage unit as he looked into Barry's eyes. "You know exactly what this is. I don't care what powers you have. You want it, you're gonna have to go through me."

"What are you talking about, what the hell are you doing?" Barry demanded.

"I'm saving your life because someone has to do it." Cisco said.

"Saving Ramsey's my call." Barry reminded.

"And it's a bad call." Cisco protested.

"And it's the one I made. Sometimes, as a leader, you have to make tough calls in order to serve the greater good." Barry said.

"You know, I made a tough call and I made it for you." Cisco countered.

"But I told you, you can't save me—" Barry started.

"I'm not buying that!" Cisco exploded.

"Well, you have to. Sacrificing myself saves everything and everyone. I've seen it." Barry said.

"And what does that give me to look forward to? Waking up to a world without the Flash? A life without my best friend?" Cisco snapped.

"You get to live. You all get to live." Barry pleaded.

"Don't." Cisco waved him off and turned around.

"Look, man, I… I've been dealing with this for weeks. Wondering what's gonna happen when I'm gone, how everybody's gonna move on. That's why wanted us, you and me together, to save Ramsey today." Barry said.

"You wanted us to save a random person so I'd be OK with you buying?" Cisco asked, looking at Barry incredulously.

"No. I wanted us to save one person's life so you could understand the tough calls, the sacrifices that a leader has to make. Because you're my pick." Barry said and Cisco stared. "You're the person that I want to run S.T.A.R. Labs and this team when I'm gone. All day I've been trying to teach you how hard those responsibilities can be. And then you stole something that was meant to save another person's life. You justified it, even."

"And I'd do it again." Cisco said unrepentantly.

"Maybe I made the wrong choice." Barry said, looking at Cisco in disappointment as Cisco gave Barry the serum.

"The serum is yours." Cisco said as he left, hurt.

* * *

_**Later, Ramsey's lab** _

Ramsey heard the door knock as he opened it and smiled. "Barry."

"Can we talk?" Barry asked.

"Uh… now's really not a good time." Ramsey said, uncomfortable.

"I have something that I neeed to give you." Barry said. Ramsey blinked as he let Barry in. "S.T.A.R. Labs has been doing some research into regenerative formulas and we've developed a serum. We believe this could save your life." He showed Ramsey the vial as Ramsey stared in shock. "If you inject into your healthy cells, they should duplicate and eventually overtake your cells that are affected by HLH. But it's experimental. We haven't had time to test it properly."

"Is it dark matter based?" Ramsey asked.

"It's experimental. But… we believe it could cure you." Barry said.

Ramsey sighed, relieved. "I'd given up hope. But, why… why do this for me?"

"A week ago, you told me you felt like you were falling off a cliff. I want you to have a lifeline." Barry said.

"You're dying as well. Don't you want a lifeline for yourself?" Ramsey asked.

"There's only enough of this for one person. And I've read about you, Ramsey and I've talked to Caitlin. You're a brilliant doctor and she said that if you had enough time, you could cure HLH. I'm giving you that time. The world needs people like you to save those who can't save themselves. Test it. Verify what you believe it will do. If you decide to use it, do it quickly. We're not sure how long the serum will be viable."

"Barry." Ramsey called and Barry stopped at the door, turning to him. "Thank you."

* * *

_**Later, Patty's apartment** _

"Cisco really did that?" Patty demanded as she was pouring herself and Barry a tea. "Wow. Part of me can understand that he wanted to save you but…" She shook her head.

"What would you have done?" Barry asked as she sat across him.

"Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I didn't at least consider doing what Cisco did but we need to make tough calls sometimes for the good of others. I'm not sure how I'd be able to live with myself though if I had a chance to save your life and didn't take it for the sake of someone else." Patty admitted, looking conflicted.

"If I wanted you to save a good man instead of me and you did that, I'd be proud of you." Barry said as he held her hand as they smiled at each other.

* * *

_**Ramsey's lab** _

Later, Ramsey did test the serum on his blood samples but as he looked at the microscope, he snarled in frustration as he turned on his recorder. "Of course it's another failure! Why would I expect anything different from the universe?! My fate is sealed." He panted out, pacing down his lab. "Death wins again." Then he remembered. "Death. There is one key difference. Between the blood I stole and the blood from Mitch Romero's body. Romero was afraid for his life. His blood cells were flooded with epinephrine. Adrenaline released during the attack, it's the bonding agent. Which means… in order to create the substance I need to live… I have to kill. But first… they have to be afraid."

Ramsey looked at the tableau with Hippocratic oath at the line "DO NO HARM". Well, if he wanted to live, he needed to do harm. Ramsey's eyes turned black.

* * *

**_Patty's apartment_ **

Cisco called on Barry's phone as he turned on the speaker. "What's up, Cisco?"

"Multiple alarms at Central City General, they're evacuating." Cisco said.

"Is it a bomb threat?" Barry asked.

"Reports say a madman is attacking patients." Frost said.

* * *

_**Later, Central City General** _

The Flash and Frost sped in as they looked around.

"All the staff and patients are accounted for, except for those on this floor." Frost said before they found a dead woman lying on the floor. That one's fresh. Whoever did this was just here."

"Why would someone do this?" The Flash wondered.

"She's gone. Maybe I can figure out why." Frost said before they heard screams. "Go."

* * *

The Flash sped in and tackled the man who was draining one of the patients, with his arm covered in some blood-like substance as the man crashed against the wall and the Flash stared in shock. "Ramsey? What the hell are you doing?"

"Whatever it takes to stay alive." Ramsey said.

The Flash looked around at the dead doctors and patients, horrified to see that the kind-hearted doctor and Caitlin's friend was murdering them. "These people. You're the one that's killing." He glared at Ramsey in disbelief. "S.T.A.R. Labs gave you a cure, why didn't you take it?!"

"I did. But it didn't work. Turns out the disease in my human blood was too far gone." Ramsey growled. "But if I was to become something more than human, that's when I realized I could live forever, as long as I feed!"

"Ramsey, you're a doctor. You're supposed to be saving lives, not taking them!" The Flash shouted.

"I am saving lives, Flash. Mine. And right now, you are in my way." Ramsey raised his hand and the Flash barely dodged as one of the dead patients got up and tried to attack him.

* * *

Frost was shocked to see the dead doctors, guards and patients open their eyes with pitch black eyes and get up, snarling like zombies, the scene looking like from a zombie horror movie now.

One of them grabbed Frost by her throat but Frost used her ice beam to flip away and free herself from the dead patient's grip before she formed ice brass knuckles, engaging the zombified patient.

* * *

The Flash sped around and threw lightning, knocking down the zombies before Ramsey held one of the doctors in chokehold.

"Ramsey, come on. Let him go. Please." The Flash pleaded.

"I can't. My blood brothers and sisters are much more than just the help. They're making me stronger." Ramsey said.

"You're using them—" The Flash tried to reason with him.

"To survive!" Ramsey sneered. The Flash turned around and saw Frost blasting away the reanimated doctors and patients as she, neared Ramsey, who smirked. "Hello, Cait. Playing the hero now, are you?"

"The bad guy was taken, so yeah." Frost said.

The reanimated people got up as Frost blasted them away before creating an ice wall as a barricade.

"Please, help me." The doctor begged.

"I know what you're thinking. You're fast, Flash. But as a doctor, I know exactly where this man's carotid artery is. Even if I can't feed, you will never save him in time." Ramsey gloated.

"Ramsey. It doesn't have to be this way. Come on, man, we can help you." Ronnie pleaded.

"What you're doing… it's inhuman." Frost said.

"It was my humanity that was holding me back." Ramsey said hurtfully. "Preventing me from becoming the man Mum always knew I was destined to be. She always said I would do beautiful things for this world. And she was right. Because the man I was… _that_ was the disease! A frail human body with a shelf life. Rot. But I found a way to transcend all that. To defeat death itself."

"Everyone dies, Ramsey. Maybe the only thing that makes it bearable is to find some meaning in it." The Flash said, trying to reason with him.

Ramsey laughed. "Well, that means I'm making the greatest sacrifice of all. Don't you see? What I'm becoming, this is the cure. I am the answer, Flash, to the greatest mystery of all. Life… eternal."

"Please, Dr. Rosso—" The doctor begged but Ramsey tightened his grip.

"I saved you for last so that you would be the most afraid." Ramsey growled as the doctor paled.

"Ramsey, please, don't do this." The Flash pleaded.

"You could've saved Mum but you didn't. And that's why I came here for you." Ramsey finished.

"Ramsey—" Ramsey ripped the doctor's carotid artery as he bled out profusely. "No!" The Flash exclaimed as he held the doctor's wound. "Stay with me, all right, I got you, I got you."

The doctor tilted his head, light leaving his eyes as they looked solemn before they saw that the reanimated people were trying to claw through the ice barricade.

"What the hell are they doing?" Frost wondered.

"I think they're trying to follow Ramsey." The Flash said.

The dead doctor suddenly woke up, snarling as they backed away.

"Wait." Frost raised her hand as the Flash was about to engage.

"We have to help him." The Flash said.

"I don't think we can." Frost said before the doctor and the reanimated people suddenly dissolved into some black goo as the Flash and Frost stared in shock.

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"We lost. Five people aren't going home to their families tonight." Barry said brokenly. "And the sixth., Ramsey. We lost him, too. He's out there somewhere, we have to stop him. I have to stop him."

"Barry." Iris said, trying to comfort him.

"You tried to save him." Ralph reasoned.

"But he turned himself into a monster." Cecile said, shocked.

"That's not on us. That was Ramsey's choice." Frost said.

"I swear, if it's the last thing I do on this Earth, I'm gonna stop him." Barry vowed.

"How did Ramsey manage to all of this anyway?" Patty wondered.

"He's using people as incubators. Using their bodies to create what he needs to keep himself alive." Cisco said, looking disgusted.

"So he's turning people into human blood banks." Iris realized.

"And as soon as he gets hungry again…" Cecile trailed off.

"…he's gonna make a withdrawal." Frost finished.

"We'll find a way to take him down." Patty assured.

Barry and Cisco went aside to talk in private.

"I'm sorry about what happened at McCulloch." Cisco said.

"No, man, no, look, this… this is not your fault." Barry assured.

"I should have been focused on saving the right person." Cisco said.

"I mean, even though things didn't work out with Ramsey, at least we tried to do the right thing." Barry assured.

Cisco smiled at Barry. "I still don't now how you do that, man. Picking yourself up, pushing forward."

"I'm just trying to teach you what it's taken me years to learn." Barry assured.

"I know you're doing it for all of us. That's what it means to be a hero." Cisco smiled.

Barry smiled at Cisco in pride, holding his shoulder. "I know I picked the right guy."

* * *

Joe was staring outside the balcony as Barry neared him.

"Hey, Joe. You alright?" Barry asked.

"I was just wondering where Ramsey was and hoping to God that we find him before this gets worse." Joe whispered.

"Well, his description has been circulated to every circuit from here to Gotham, so we should find him." Patty promised.

"Then what? More people are gonna get hurt. Or worse." Joe muttered.

"I know. I tried to save him. Tried to do some good before I…" Barry sighed.

"Don't you dare start talking like that. You've done plenty of good." Joe said, turning to Barry. "Ever since you became the Flash, you've saved more people than CCPD altogether. Without you, I would've lost my family a long time ago but this is what you get for you saving the world over and over again?" He wondered, staring at the city. "How… how is that right?"

"You know it doesn't work like that." Barry countered.

"Doesn't it? I mean, I'm a cop, if I risk my life every day for thirty years, I get to retire, I get to go home to the woman I love, I get to proudly watch my baby girl grow up each and every day, I get a life, Barr." Joe looked at Barry hurtfully with his eyes getting wet. "You're a hero, Barr. What do you get? Nothing. And it's not right. We… the world owes you. You deserve better than this."

"No, I don't. I'm grateful for everything that I have. All the blessings that I have. Patty. The team. I mean, I'm the Flash and I'm grateful for that but you…" Barry's eyes were getting wet. "You're what I'm most grateful for. If it weren't for you, your patience, your courage, the will just to keep going, I learned that all from you. More than anyone else, before the team, before Patty, you were the one that showed me what it takes just to be a good person. You're one of the reasons I was even able to become the Flash."

Joe broke down in tears as he and Barry hugged each other.

"It's alright. It's OK. I'm never gonna leave you. Even when I'm gone." Barry said.

* * *

_**Central City** _

Nash was in some underground tunnels as he turned on the scanner on his device that showed a holographic image of Mar Novu walking down the tunnels and Nash smirked before he saw Novu's hologram go through a wall.

"Time to pay a house call." Nash smirked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mentioned this before in my other story but Cisco really ticked me off in this episode, but to be fair, they had no idea that Ramsey had been going off the deep end. Cisco deciding to keep the serum for Barry dying in the Crisis, instead of a dying man, who could die at any moment is just as selfish as Felicity telling Ray to save Oliver instead of millions of lives in Arrow Season 3 finale, when Oliver was fighting Ra's and the SCPD had him in their gunsight, while Ray was building and programming nanobots with the vaccine against Alpha/Omega virus plaguing the whole city and don't get me started on how stupid was Felicity saving Oliver by flawlessly flying the Atom suit, which was nothing more but stupid Felicity pandering, since Felicity had not flown it before and her saving Oliver with it was stupid beyond measure.
> 
> And I think that before Nash inadvertently let Anti-Monitor out and started the Crisis, he was fine, so I have some slightly different plans for Nash here, since I think that asides from that, he was fine Wells, but not as good as Harry or Sherloque.
> 
> So, what do you guys think?
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.


	5. License to Elongate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Patty try to prepare Ralph for a life after Crisis but Ralph ends up teaching them a lesson, when they help Ralph with his case, while Nash continues investigating the Crisis and the Monitor and gets closer to Allegra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I skipped 6x05, since quite frankly, I found that episode dull and I don't know why did they decide to set aside Barry and Iris, unless they wanted a full focus on the plot with Cisco and Breacher and Nash and Joe. For those who don't know, Barry and Iris went on vacation in that episode, leaving Cisco in charge and Breacher comes to visit to let Cisco know that Gypsy had been murdered, which I find a cheap exit for her. Asides from the fact that I find Cisco/Gypsy stupid, I like her but the writers needed to explain her permanent disappearance due to Jessica Camacho being cast into TV series called "All Rise" and it turned out that she was murdered by Echo, a criminal that she had been hunting and was coincidentally Cisco's doppelganger from the same Earth Gypsy, Breacher and H.R. Wells are from and she lured Echo to Earth-1, so that Cisco and Breacher would catch him.
> 
> In the meantime, Nash was underground, still investigating the Crisis and the Monitor, with Joe trying to stop Nash from making a mess but both then got trapped underground until Ralph rescued them and Nash then revealed to Team Flash that he might have a way to save Barry and Ramsey offered Caitlin immortality in exchange for joining him but she declined.
> 
> I myself found the plot a bit dull, since I didn't think it really furthered the overall storyline of the season much, so I skipped that episode, and I'm going straight to 6x06, "License to Elongate" which is one of my favorite episodes and was directed by Danielle Panabaker and has nice James Bond vibes.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

**_Central City_ **

Nash had summoned the whole Team Flash underground, where he had found giant metal door carved with symbols.

"This is what I do. I don't just solve mysteries, I bust myths. I bust them wide open." Nash said.

"You said you could save Barry." Iris said.

"What did you mean by that?" Patty asked.

"Do you know what you're dealing with?" Nash asked as he turned to them. "The Monitor, Mar Novu, or whatever he calls himself."

"Are you saying the Monitor is here?" Barry asked as they stared at the door.

"Or at least the clues that would tell us who or what he is." Nash said.

"You're saying that this wall has written secrets about a multiversal god?" Patty asked.

"That is correct. And if I find a way to decipher those symbols…" Nash gestured. "If my calculations are correct, we'll learn Mar Novu's secret and what is this Crisis he's talking about."

* * *

_**Later, CCPD** _

"So, Ralph is going to be your successor?" Patty asked curiously as they talked in Joe's office, where Barry had a medal prepared for Ralph, with letters "E" and "M", as in "Elongated Man".

"The official Elongated Man emblem. He's gonna scream. He's gonna be so surprised." Joe noted.

"I've been preparing the whole team for life after Crisis, but Central City also has to be ready for a world without the Flash, and Elongated Man should be its sole protector once I'm gone. As far as Ralph knows, he's coming to CCPD for a routine deposition tomorrow, when it's really a press conference to pass the torch." Barry explained.

"Hey, guys." Ralph said as he entered, while Joe quickly hid the medal in a box. "Got your message, Joe."

"Hey, Ralph, I talked to an old friend about your Dearbon case. I got the address you were looking for in Midway City." Joe said as he handed Ralph the file. "If I were you, I would go check it out after the deposition tomorrow."

"Why put off tomorrow what you can do today, right? Thanks." Ralph said, about to leave.

"You know, Barry and I can help you with the case. I mean, with our help, you'll be back by tomorrow morning just in time for the deposition." Patty offered.

"It's a routine deposition, you guys can handle it." Ralph said.

"Come on, we can speed things up a bit." Barry insisted.

"You wanna help me with a PI case?" Ralph asked curiously.

"Yeah, definitely." Barry said.

"Come on, it'll be fun." Patty added.

"OK." Ralph nodded.

* * *

_**Later, Midway City** _

Barry, Ralph and Patty were on a stakeout outside a casino in Ralph's car.

"I spent the whole summer hobnobbing with the rich, famous and the infamous. Relax, I got this." Ralph said.

"You spent whole summer undercover with this sort of folks?" Patty asked curiously.

"What does a gala event have to do with Sue's disappearance anyway?" Barry asked.

"Right before Sue vanished, she was seen wearing a one-of-a-kind Victoria Veil dress in Milan. This photo was taken three weeks ago." Ralph said, showing a photo of a woman wearing a golden dress but her face was hidden with a black umbrella. "It's the exact same dress. Sue was here. And either she's still here or somebody in there knows why she isn't. Time to suit up." He showed Barry a tuxedo and to Patty a red dress as he smirked at them. "This is how we suit up tonight."

Barry and Patty stared in shock.

* * *

Barry, Ralph and Patty entered the gala as they blended in with the guests.

"So, if anyone knows where Sue is, it'll be the party's host." Ralph said.

"And if I were a rich man funding a gala for dozens of one-percenters, where would I be?" Patty teased as they turned to…

"The VIP lounge." Ralph said as he adjusted his tie. "That's where anyone who's anyone who's anyone will be going to kiss the proverbial ring. We need to get in there."

"Here, mine was tight too. Just let me…" Barry adjusted Ralph's tie, when they heard 'clicks'.

"What was that?" Patty asked.

"Now I have ten selfies of inside Barry Allen's nose." Ralph smirked as Barry and Patty stared at him.

"A camera tie?" Barry asked and Ralph nodded.

"What's next, James Bond? A knife shoe, a grapple hook belt, a laser watch?" Patty joked.

"Maybe." Ralph smirked before he saw a beautiful brunette in red dress wearing a diamond necklace pass by them. "Time to charm. Wait for my signal."

"Ralph, what's the…" Barry trailed off, when Ralph approached the woman.

"And here I thought the paintings would be the most beautiful thing tonight. I was wrong." Ralph said as the woman turned to him. "Ralph Dibny."

"January Galore." The woman said with a foreign accent, French perhaps as she turned to Ralph, who nodded. "I haven't seen you at one of these events before."

"That's because I spent the last year on my island in Dubai. My partner and I sold our corporation." Ralph said as he gestured for Barry and Patty to approach him. "Barry. Patty." He then turned to the waiter. "Gin Gold martini, shaken, not stirred."

"Congratulations on selling your corporation, Barry." January said as she toasted. "I hope you reinvested your profits in collateralized loan obligations."

Patty then took charge, holding Barry by his arm, trying to act like a higher-class woman. "Well, my darling and his partner recently decided to sold their company for millions of dollars."

"Do you know our host?" Barry asked.

"Mr. Meyers?" January asked.

"Yes, Mr. Meyers." Barry nodded.

"The host of this event is Remington Meister. The three of you crashed this event, didn't you?" January said, eying them as they tensed, realizing that they were busted. "Would you like some free advice? I'd leave before someone scary comes and finds you."

January left as Barry, Ralph and Patty looked at each other awkwardly.

"Well, that did not go well." Barry whispered.

"Yes, it did. Our VIP ticket." Ralph said as he showed a golden cufflink to them.

Patty stared. "How did you—"

"Finesse." Ralph explained.

* * *

_**Central City Citizen** _

Allegra entered Iris's office but widened her eyes, when she noticed someone going through Iris's drawer in her desk. "Harrison Wells?"

"Ah!" Nash yelped as he turned to Allegra. "OK, who are you?"

"Allegra." Allegra said.

"You're the intern." Nash remembered. "So, maybe you can help me with something. I'm looking for a UV emitter and my scanner tells me there is a UV emitter right around here." He turned to his device on his wrist that beeped rapidly.

"You're supposed to be dead." Allegra said, eying Nash. "What happened? Did you fake your own death?"

"What?" Nash asked before it hit him. "Oh. No. You think I'm Harrison Wells. I'm not Harrison Wells. My name is Nash. Nash Wells."

"You look just like him." Allegra noted.

"Yeah, well, doppelgangers are like that." Nash shrugged as he pointed the device on his gauntlet at Allegra as it beeped faster. "OK, Allegra. I need UV rays to complete my dig. You, according to my gauntlet, are a metahuman with UV capabilities, you see where I'm going here?"

"You want me to use my powers to help you?" Allegra realized.

"Yes!" Nash said excitedly.

"I can't help you." Allegra shook her head.

"What? Why not?" Nash asked.

"Never mind, the answer is 'no'." Allegra said.

"Allegra, I will make you a deal. You help me with the…" Nash gestured. "UV thing and I will give you the scoop of the century. Doppelgangers, multiverse and potentially, the end of all life as we know it. Now, how does this sound to you?"

Allegra looked intrigued. "Tell me more about this multiverse."

* * *

_**Midway City** _

Barry, Ralph and Patty sat at a nearby game table when Barry and Ralph felt hands on their shoulders and looked up to see a bald man with a short beard wearing a white tuxedo with a black bow tie.

"Very few of my guests have the tapkerfeit to challenge me like this. After all, I'm the master of this ring." The man said with a German accent as Barry, Ralph and Patty tensed, fearing that they had been caught before the man continued with a smile. "Strict rules of Mahjong?"

"But of course." Ralph said.

"So, gentlemen and lady, I don't think we have been properly introduced. I'm Remington Meister, your host. And you are?" Meister said as he sat across them, picking the Mahjong tiles.

"Patricia Spivot." Patty said.

"The name's Dibny. Ralph Dibny." Ralph said, trying to make an impression of James Bond.

Barry tried to follow Ralph's lead. "Allen. Barry—"

"Well, nice to meet you, Allen Barry, Ralph Dibny and Patricia Spivot." Meister nodded to them and Barry frowned and Patty tried to suppress her chuckle upon Meister misunderstanding Barry's name before Barry could finish introducing himself. "What brings you to my wonderful grosse feier?"

Barry winked at Patty and Ralph before turning to Meister. "Sue Dearbon."

"Sue?" Meister asked, looking curious. "A… fiercely intelligent young woman. She's a friend of yours?"

"I'm an admirer of hers." Ralph lied.

"Ah, you have taste, Mr. Dibny. And I wish I could be a more auspicious host and introduce you but I'm afraid Miss Dearbon isn't here. In fact, I don't think I've seen her at any social event in over six months. Perhaps she'll attend an event in your facility soon. And, where was that?" Meister said.

"Paris." Barry said.

"Dubai." Ralph said at the same time.

"Sydney." Patty said at the same time.

"We run a multi-city import/export company." Ralph added quickly.

"Hmm." Meister looked intrigued.

"Is it possible that Miss Dearbon may still be on your guest list?" Patty asked.

"You think I should check?" Meister inquired.

"Sure." Barry nodded.

"Idna!" Meister gestured to a hostess as Barry, Patty and Ralph noticed that she was wearing the same dress Sue was wearing on the photo as the hostess handed a list to Meister.

"That's a beautiful dress. Is this one-of-a-kind?" Barry asked.

"Two-of-a-kind, actually. Even the most stubborn designer's one-of-a-kind outfit has a price." Idna said.

"So true!" Meister laughed as he turned to Barry. "I'm impressed. You have quite the eye for fashion."

"That he does, right, honey?" Patty smiled as she held Barry by his arm and kissed him on his cheek.

"Sue Dearbon is not on the list." Meister said.

"Oh." Ralph said, looking disappointed.

Meister then narrowed his eyes at them. "And strange, neither are you."

"Well, when an auction like yours pops up, no list can keep us away." Ralph lied.

"I like you." Meister smirked at Ralph before turning to Barry and Patty. "Them? _Nicht so viel_." Barry and Patty gulped and Ralph tensed, thinking that they had been caught before Meister then looked at the tiles on the desk. "Oh, Mahjong. Sieg. I win." He smiled at them as Barry, Patty and Ralph relaxed. "Such a pleasure to meet the three of you. Enjoy the rest of your evening."

Meister got up and accompanied Idna. "Put our friend above on high alert."

* * *

In the upper balcony, Esperanza, dressed as Ultraviolet pulled out her phone and saw a photo of Barry, Ralph and Patty.

* * *

"I think we should get out here." Patty whispered.

"Yeah." Barry nodded.

"I tracked down the woman who designed Sue's dress in Milan." Ralph said as he approached them. "It turns out that Idna did commission her to make another one."

"Ralph, we just got made and Sue isn't here, besides, this gala is a dead end." Patty pointed out.

"Patty, if Meister wanted us out of here, we'd be gone already. Take a whiff, would you? Something doesn't smell right here." Ralph assured.

"Ralph, we know you care about this Sue case but we're grasping at straws. I'm not even sure there's a mystery here." Barry said.

"Really? You're not sure?" Ralph snorted as he gestured to a man with an eyepatch at the bottom of the stairs, drinking.

"Riggs Wellington. Makes counterfeits for Bratva." Patty said, narrowing her eyes.

"Yeah. And January Galore?" Ralph gestured to the woman they had met earlier, who was currently mingling with some guests. "She's an underground weapons dealer."

"If this is a party for criminals, then the Flash and Elongated Man need to take over." Barry whispered.

"Pump the breaks, would you? There's a time and a place for masks and cowls but this is not it. This Meister, he's up to something. We need to find out what it is, no matter how long it takes." Ralph said.

* * *

**_Central City_ **

Nash had accompanied Allegra to the underground tunnel, where was the entrance he had found.

"And these different Earths have existed simultaneously since…" Allegra started.

"…the dawn of time." Nash said.

"How come nobody knows about stuff this big? The public should be made aware." Allegra said, writing down notes.

"People know. The right people. The general public, no, that would not be good, they would lose their minds." Nash explained.

"Right. I mean, it's all so… epic." Allegra noted, looking amazed.

"Yes, I know, epic. Doppelgangers, antimatter events, speedsters juggling between dual identities like the Flash and Barry Allen." Nash said but froze, when he realized that he had slipped.

"Wait. What? My boss's ex is the Flash?" Allegra demanded, staring in shock before sighing in frustration. "Nobody tells me anything."

"Wait, wait, wait, back to the topic, the villain of this story. The Monitor. The cosmic imposter with delusions of grandeur. I'm gonna take that fraud down permanently." Nash said as he started examining the symbols on the door.

"You're gonna kill this Novu guy?" Allegra asked warily.

"Enough story time. Time for you to hold up your end of the bargain." Nash said, turning to the door.

"Wait, can you explain doppelgangers?" Allegra asked, curious.

"Sure, absolutely, I can, but first…" Nash gestured to the door. "Let's have you zap this with your meta UV lights, so I can find out what rocks to avoid when I excavate. And… go."

Allegra sighed and took a breath, raising her hands but pulled away. "I… I can't."

"Yes, you can. You're a meta, it's who you are." Nash said.

"No, it's not." Allegra shook her head.

"Yes, it is and also, we had a deal." Nash reminded.

"Well, the deal's off. I'm not gonna be some weapon you can use to hurt others." Allegra protested.

"I'm not asking you to be a weapon." Nash assured.

"It's not who I am!" Allegra snapped as she ran off, frightened and Nash sighed.

* * *

_**Midway City** _

Ralph had broken into the security room and knocked out a guard as he looked at the computer and found a file labeled "RING OF FIRE".

"Something tells me that's not a Johnny Cash song." Ralph said.

* * *

The Flash sped around and sighed as he looked in the maintenance corridors. "Damn it, Ralph, she's not here." He tapped his comms. "Patty?"

* * *

"I don't see her anywhere among the guests, I'm heading your way." Patty said and entered the maintenance area but widened her eyes, when she saw a dark-haired woman in red mask. "You?"

Before Patty could pull out her gun, Esperanza knocked her out.

* * *

The Flash tapped his comms. "Patty? Patty, do you copy?"

Next thing he knew, he felt something hitting him in the back and shocking him, knocking him out.

"Wunderbar." Meister smirked as he tapped his shock brass knuckles.

* * *

The Flash came to, restrained to a chair with Patty behind him as he tried to struggled out.

"Don't bother. They put power dampeners on the restraints." Patty said.

"I must say, I did not expect Central City's resident superhero to crash my little gathering." Meister said as he entered with Esperanza.

"Really?" Patty refrained herself from rolling her eyes. "I think you've been watching too many Bond films, this is so villain-cliché, the accent, the evil planning, the silent but deadly muscle."

"Ultraviolet. I sent you to Iron Heights!" The Flash stared in disbelief.

"Luckily, she has friends in low places." Meister said.

"And I'm gonna guess, you're gonna add my unmasking to your little auction?" The Flash asked.

"Oh, I could care less about your secret identity, Flash, my interests are global." Meister said as one of his henchmen dragged in Ralph, who was restrained with power-dampening cuffs. "And to think, Mr. Dibny, that it was the Flash that set off my meta-activity monitor that then triggered the security protocols that got you caught. Danke schon. I am very curious though as to why are you here?"

"Do you expect me to talk?" Ralph drawled.

"No, I expect you to die." Meister said.

Ralph refrained himself from rolling his eyes. "Oh, come on. That line is definitely from 'Goldfinger'."

"And so is this." Meister said as Esperanza pulled a sheet to reveal a laser. "Behold, a state-of-the-art industrial laser cannon. It will shoot a deadly beam… Zap!" He gestured at them. "Through the three of you the moment Central City is destroyed."

"You'll kill millions of innocents, just to sell your weapon?" Patty demanded as Meister turned on the screen on which was satellite imaging of Central City.

"Ja. Enjoy the show." Meister smirked as he left.

* * *

**_Central City_ **

Nash was examining the door, when Allegra returned.

"Got lost, didn't you?" Nash asked.

"What? No." Allegra said.

"No?" Nash repeated.

"Maybe." Allegra admitted as Nash chuckled and Allegra glared. "Shut up."

"I freaked you out, didn't I?" Nash said.

"Watching Rag Doll eat while in Iron Heights is freaky." Allegra said.

"Sure it is. So why the disappearing act? Actually, let me pause at theory on that." Nash said before Allegra could say anything. "I think you're afraid to use your powers because if you do, you think you'll become like someone. Someone you know, someone you… hate." Allegra winced as Nash smirked, knowing he had her. "How am I doing?"

"My cousin Esperanza, she has the same powers as me, only she uses them to murder people." Allegra admitted.

"You're not your cousin." Nash assured, looking at her in sympathy.

"But if I start using my powers, what's to stop me from becoming like her?" Allegra argued.

"Because, Allegra, in this life we choose. We choose who we are. So if you choose to use your incredible powers, that does not make you anything like Esperanza, unless you choose that." Nash said.

Allegra considered. "I'm not Esperanza."

"Who are you?" Nash asked.

"I'm Allegra. Allegra Garcia." Allegra took a breath and raised her hands.

"Yes." Nash nodded.

Allegra charged her hands and aimed her UV blast at the wall, revealing an inscription before she panted out in exhaustion. "Did I do it?"

Nash took a closer look at the inscription. "Yes. I think you did."

* * *

_**Midway City** _

"I should've listened to you. If we'd done things your way, we wouldn't have gotten caught. Maybe I should be handing Central City over to Ralph Dibny rather than Elongated Man." Barry grumbled.

"What are you talking about?" Ralph asked.

"There was never a deposition. We were planning a press conference to present you as Central City's official protector and the Flash's successor." Patty admitted.

"Because of this coming Crisis, I have to prepare the city for a world without the Flash." Barry revealed.

Ralph looked shocked. "Wow. I'm… I'm honored that you think that I could help fill your shoes. Look, tonight's job was for Ralph Dibny because both parts of my identity have value. The same is true to you, only tonight I could've used your civilian half."

"So what you're saying is that Barry Allen is just as important as the Flash?" Patty asked.

"Exactly." Ralph said.

"I knew that already." Patty smiled as she turned to Barry. "I wish more people could see it too."

Barry and Patty smiled at each other.

"Can you reach my cufflink?" Ralph asked.

"What?" Barry asked, confused.

"Grab my cufflink." Ralph ordered.

"OK." Barry reached for Ralph's cufflink.

"On 'three', I want you to flick it at that laser cannon. One. Two. Flick!" Ralph said as Barry flicked it at the laser cannon and it exploded in sparks.

"It's down." Patty said before the cannon turned on. "Uh-oh."

"What?" Ralph asked before the cannon started firing around and Ralph panicked. "OK, what do we do?"

"I don't know." Barry said.

"Guys, we need to get out of here before it blasts us!" Patty panicked, trying to free herself from the restraints.

"Wait. Wait. There's a pattern." Barry said as he saw the direction in which the cannon was shooting.

"Really?" Ralph asked, surprised.

"OK, when I say 'now', fling ourselves to the left." Barry said.

"OK." Patty nodded.

"Right." Ralph nodded.

"The left!" Barry snapped, misunderstanding before the cannon aimed at them. "Now!"

Barry, Ralph and Patty turned as the cannon aimed at them and luckily for them, hitting the restraints and freeing them before Ralph picked the chair to which he had been restrained and used it to smash the cannon.

"We have to stop Meister." Barry said.

"What about Ultraviolet, she's his bodyguard." Patty reminded.

"And her powers could kill us." Ralph said.

"Then let's do things your way, with a little finesse. Time to suit up." Barry smirked.

* * *

Meister was auctioning his Ring of Fire satellite system equipped with long-range missiles as Barry stumbled upon the stage with a bottle of champagne, acting drunk.

"Wait, this isn't a bathroom. Sorry." Barry said, staggering on his feet.

Meister looked amused. "Mr. Allen Barry, I see you have found the open bar."

"Keep her busy until I get to that console." Ralph ordered on the comms.

"I'm so sorry, I should accompany my darling out." Patty said as she entered, trying to drag Barry out.

"I'll bid on your stupid laptop." Barry said.

"Five-hundred million dollars." January said, bidding her price.

"Five-hundred million and one dollars. 'Price Is Right' rules." Barry said.

"Ultraviolet, gently escort Mr. Barry and Miss Spivot out but don't burn their money." Meister said.

Esperanza neared Barry, who laughed, staggering on his feet like a drunk. "I love Mortal Kombat!"

Ralph pulled the key off the laptop controlling the satellite as Meister laughed at the sight of him. "Mr. Dibny, we meet again."

"You've got to take these Bond quotes off, man." Ralph quipped.

Barry prepared to fight with Esperanza, clenching his fists and doing a stance as if he was in a boxing match. "You know what my favorite part is? 'Finish him!'"

"You know, usually I make Ultraviolet do the killing but for you, I'll make an exception." Meister told Ralph.

Barry picked a bottle and whacked Esperanza in the head with it, shattering it.

Ralph dodged as Meister attacked with his shock brass knuckles before Meister hit him in the chest, staggering him back. Ralph blocked the blows and pushed Meister back.

Barry dodged Esperanza's kick and picked a tray, attempting to hit her but Esperanza dodged before Barry blocked her kick. Patty and Esperanza briefly exchanged blows as Barry picked a shield from a stand and tried to hit Esperanza but she dodged.

Meister landed an uppercut to Ralph's chin, knocking him down before turning to his briefcase and flipping a switch, turning on his satellite, about to aim a missile to Central City. "Fire in the hole!"

Esperanza threw Barry away, while Patty picked the shield and used it to knock Esperanza down.

Ralph dodged Meister's punch but was knocked down. Improvising, Barry picked a sword and cut the line as the rafter with lights fell down on Esperanza, subduing her. Ralph was knocked down as he adjusted his tie.

Meister scoffed. "Really? Adjusting your tie?"

Ralph smirked. "Adjusting the flash."

Barry and Patty got the signal as Ralph turned on the flashlight on the camera in his tie, blinding Meister. Barry picked a Taser and shocked Meister from behind, electrocuting him as he fell down. Ralph, Patty and Barry neared the laptop and typed in a self-destruction protocol as the Meister's satellite in the sky exploded.

"Nice!" Patty said as she, Barry and Ralph high-fived.

Meister laughed, actually amused, defeated like a villain from a Bond movie, which amused him, since he was a fan of Bond movies. "Your performance… Wundebar, Mr. Barry!"

Barry adjusted his tie, smirking at Meister. "The name is Allen. Barry Allen."

* * *

**_Later, CCPD_ **

"Remington Meister's crime ring is over." Joe said.

"Sorry we didn't find Sue as you had hoped." Patty said, turning to Ralph.

"My nose tells me there's more to that case than I imagine." Ralph said as he turned to Joe.

"You'll find her." Barry assured.

"I will and in the meantime, I'll bee busy keeping Central City safe." Ralph said as he turned to Joe. "We still on that ceremony today, Joe?"

"See you there." Joe said.

* * *

_**Central City Citizen** _

Nash handed Allegra a bottle of juice as she drank from it.

"Better?" Nash asked.

"Yeah, thanks." Allegra said.

"You're welcome." Nash said.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Allegra asked curiously.

"Let's just say you remind me of someone." Nash said.

"Another doppelganger?" Allegra inquired.

"Something like that." Nash said as Allegra lied down on the couch and Nash left, while pulling out a worn photo of himself and a young girl wearing a hat, who looked exactly like Allegra, both of them in a jungle on some kind of an expedition.

* * *

_**CCPD** _

The Flash, Patty, Joe and Elongated Man were at a press conference in the precinct as the Flash approached the mics.

"For the last five years I've tried to keep Central City safe. But as new threats arise, you'll need more than me, which is why I'm proud to recognize a hero who's put his life on the line for this city time and time again. A hero who deserves our recognition. The Elongated Man." The Flash said as the Elongated Man entered as the people applauded. "Now Central City has another symbol of hope." He pinned a medal with capital letters "E" and "M" on Elongated Man's jacket as the crowd applauded louder, while Elongated Man stepped to the mics and the Flash sped off.

"To every woman, every man and every child listening today, I have wanted to protect Central City since before I even got my powers. This is my home and I love it here and today, hereby, I promise that I will defend Central City with my dying breath." Elongated Man said as the crowd applauded. "Before we wrap up, there is someone that Captain West and I would like to bring up here. CSI Barry Allen, please, come up."

And on cue, Barry made his way past the reporters to the mics, looking at Ralph, confused. "What are you doing?"

Joe stepped to the mics. "Uh, those who wear capes and costumes are not the only ones that keep us safe. There are some unsung heroes as well, like this man." He smiled at Barry. "This man has solved crimes to give mourning families justice. He's a CCPD team member who's never given up on a single case. This man has saved Central City more times than anyone knows. So it's time that we thank him. It's time that I thank him. So, without further ado…"

"Officer Barry Allen, on behalf of CCPD we present you with the highest honor…" Patty showed Barry a medal in a box. "The Medal of Honor."

"Thank you for your service." Elongated Man said as he pinned the medal on Barry's jacket and Barry smiled as he hugged Joe and Patty.

* * *

_**Central City Citizen** _

Elongated Man handed Iris a photo. "I took this at the party."

Iris took a closer look at one of the guests, who had a pin on his suit. "I recognize that pin."

"Guess who else showed up in Midway City?" Ralph asked.

"Ultraviolet." Iris realized and Ralph nodded. "Thanks, Ralph. 'The Citizen' is on it."

Iris left as Ralph stared outside the window before he sensed someone behind him.

"Great press conference." Ramsey said and Ralph paled as Ramsey's eyes were pitch black and black veins were covering his face. "I have a follow-up question."

Ramsey snarled as he lunged at Ralph and they both fell off the rooftop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, it was just Barry and Ralph at Meister's party but I thought that involving Patty would be fun. I can imagine Iris screwing it up in Felicity-style if she were there though.
> 
> As I said, I think that Nash was fine until he accidentally let Anti-Monitor out, so for the sake of this story, behind the door underground isn't Anti-Monitor and Anti-Monitor was released the same way he was in comic books, with Pariah accidentally letting out with his experiments and I'm not going to make Nash the Pariah but just wait. Some things with Nash investigating are going to be slightly different than from the show.
> 
> So, what do you guys think?
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.


	6. Infected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While saving Ralph from Ramsey, Barry becomes infected with his blood and struggles to maintain control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises.

As they were falling off the rooftop, Ralph and Ramsey were exchanging blows before they crashed on the roof of a car and they both got up on their feet.

"Whoo! That was quite the tumble." Ramsey quipped as he turned to Ralph. "I guess you're wondering why I'm doing this to you."

"You're evil. I get it." Ralph shrugged.

Ramsey stretched his arms and threw a car at Ralph, who stretched himself to throw it back but Ramsey dodged before he threw at Ralph some bullets in form of some blood-like substance as Ralph spasmed and groaned, falling down and crawling on the ground.

"I bet it's been a while since you felt your own mortality, but my powers, like yours, work on a cellular level. Allow me to demonstrate." Ramsey said.

Ralph put his hand into a sewer hatch as it emerged from another right near Ramsey, punching him in the face and knocking him down. Ralph recovered, staggering on his feet as Ramsey laughed.

"You know, Iron Heights is gonna send me a 'thank you' basket, when I drop you off as a gift." Ralph said.

"I've already given you a gift and now I'm gonna need it back." Ramsey said, outstretching his hand.

Ralph spasmed, groaning as Ramsey drained his blood out of Ralph's body, while Ralph collapsed to the ground.

"My destiny is to heal all mankind. You and your friends can't be allowed to prevent that. Life demands your death." Ramsey said before he stretched his arms and crawled up the wall, fleeing the scene.

A breach then opened as Frost rushed to Ralph. "Ralph! Ralph! Ralph, come on."

* * *

Later, they brought Ralph back to S.T.A.R. Labs, putting him on the stretcher, as he was spasming, while Barry, Frost, Cisco and Patty were treating him.

"What happened?" Patty asked.

"Ramsey." Cisco explained.

"Frost, how do we fix this?" Barry demanded.

"I don't know, I can't fix this! Maybe Caitlin can." Frost said as she turned back to Caitlin as she turned to Ralph's CT. "Ralph's elastic cells aren't mending like they used to. Ramsey must be getting stronger."

"So Ralph can't heal himself?" Cisco realized.

"No. But maybe you can." Caitlin explained, turning to Barry.

"What?" Barry asked, confused.

"Your speed healing is the only thing that we've seen that can repair damage this severe. Maybe if we gave him a blood transfusion, that would fix him." Caitlin said.

"Wait, you mean that Barry would give Ralph his speed healing?" Patty realized.

"Theoretically, temporarily, yes., I don't know, we're sort of in uncharted medical territory here but your blood is O-negative, so you're a universal donor." Caitlin explained.

"Guys, Ralph is elastic. No needle can puncture through his skin." Cisco reminded as Ralph was spasming violently.

"I can phase him." Barry noted.

"Will that work?" Cisco asked, turning to Caitlin.

Caitlin considered before nodding. "Do it."

Patty handed Barry tubes with needles as Barry phased Ralph's arm and Patty attached both Barry's and Ralph's veins to the tube, transfusing Barry's blood.

* * *

Barry was observing Ralph, who was resting on the stretcher as Iris entered. "I heard about Ralph, how is he?"

"He's stable. For now. We've called A.R.G.U.S., they'll move Ralph to a secure medical facility for him to recover. Patty, Cisco and Caitlin are arranging transport for him right now." Barry said as he looked at Ralph worriedly.

"Don't worry, he's gonna pull through." Iris assured.

"It's not that. What if I hadn't been there? Ralph's fight was nothing compared to what's coming. Crisis is only two days away." Barry said.

"Barry, what happened to Ralph isn't your fault." Patty assured as she entered. "You've prepared us all as best as you could and you can't let what happened with Ralph make you doubt that. Whatever comes next, we'll face it together, like we always do."

Barry considered and nodded.

* * *

_**Later, Patty's apartment** _

Barry returned back to his and Patty's apartment and sat down, panting out in frustration before he sensed someone behind him and turned around to see Ramsey, who was smiling.

"I'm gonna give you one chance to turn yourself in. Honestly, I hope you don't take it." Barry glared, clenching his fists.

"Well, there's no need to involve the authorities, I just want to talk… Flash." Ramsey smirked and Barry paled. "Of course. You're the Flash? But how? When? You were struck by lightning. That is quite the origin story."

Barry rushed at Ramsey in superspeed but his punch went straight through Ramsey, not hitting him at all as Barry instead shattered a glass vase of flowers, much to his confusion.

"I don't know how you're doing this. Real or not, I'm coming for you." Barry vowed.

"And yet I'm not your foremost concern, am I? Not as much as your inevitable demise in the coming… Crisis? Goodness, you really are full of surprises, aren't you?" Ramsey teased as he paced down the apartment. "So tell me, when you saw all those permutations, billions of possible futures, all ending in your death…" He smirked as he turned to Barry. "…what role did I play?"

"You didn't. You weren't there." Barry said.

"Really? Not even in one?" Ramsey asked with feigned disappointment. "Huh. Then again, you never saw this coming, did you? Frankly, nether did I. Makes one believe in the possible, does it?"

Barry almost shivered, since Ramsey was repeating Barry's own words.

"You look scared. You should be. After all, it is the end of the world, isn't it?" Ramsey said, smirking as the sky turned red and Barry turned to the window to see antimatter wave obliterating Central City.

* * *

Barry gasped, waking up on the couch and noticed that the glass vase he had shattered was there intact as he sighed in relief.

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"CBC, metabolic rate, all normal for a speedster, just a small spike in cortisol. I think you just had a nightmare." Caitlin said as she analyzed Barry's blood.

Barry frowned, shaking his head. "I don't know. Ramsey seemed so real. Something feels off, I just can't put my finger on it."

* * *

**_Later, Patty's apartment_ **

Barry entered the apartment and put his jacket on a hanger before he sped around, searching every room, just for the sake of his own sanity before he sighed in relief and poured himself a glass of water.

Barry then felt a chill down his spine as he turned around to see his mother Nora. "Mom? Is this another nightmare?"

"No, Barry. This is much, much worse." 'Nora' said.

"You're the Speed Force." Barry realized.

"Yes. It's been a while since we've talked like this. I've missed it." 'Nora' smiled.

"You need to help. I don't understand what's happening to me." Barry begged.

"You used your blood to save your friend's life, but in the process, you've endangered your own. A small amount of Ramsey's cells remain from the attack, hidden from the eye." 'Nora' explained.

"Ramsey's infected me." Barry realized.

"And more than you realize. Ramsey' sentience, his very being resides in his cells." 'Nora' explained.

"That's how he knows I'm the Flash, about Crisis." Barry whispered as he looked around. "If this is all in my mind, then where's my real body?"

"After your friend Frost examined you, you came back home, dropped your keys in that bowl, poured a glass of water, then the infection took hold. As we speak, Ramsey's infection is spreading through your body and your mind. Your speed healing is trying to hold off his disease but ultimately, it's up to you to resist him." 'Nora' said.

"Is Ramsey trying to kill me?" Barry paled.

"Worse, I'm afraid. He wants to take control of you and bend you to his will." 'Nora' said.

"Then he's gonna lose." Barry vowed.

* * *

Next thing Barry knew, he was back in the Wests' house, where Joe, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, Lisa, Ralph and Patty were eating lunch as Barry was sitting across them.

"Hope you're gonna like my salad." Patty smiled.

"I'm all about these mashed potatoes." Caitlin said.

"I'm gonna need second help with these beans. That's both praise and warning." Ralph said as they all laughed.

Barry then realized something was off, despite that everything seemed normal. "This is wrong."

"Everyone. I've got homemade lasagna." Ramsey said as he entered with a tray of lasagna as everyone except Barry cheered and applauded and as Joe was cutting the lasagna, from it went out some substance that looked just like Ramsey's mutated blood and Barry backed away in horror as everyone ate it.

"Barry, it's rude not to eat." Patty said as she offered Barry a spoon of Ramsey's lasagna.

"You're not Patty. This isn't real." Barry took a breath, glaring at Ramsey. "I'm not gonna give into you."

"Barry, you misjudge me. I'm just here to enjoy supper with good friends and perhaps offer you a gift." Ramsey said.

"What could you possibly offer me?" Barry demanded.

"Everything." Everyone at the dining room said and Barry backed away in horror.

* * *

Next thing Barry knew, he was in the Time Vault and stared at the news article about the Flash vanishing in the Crisis which was dated December 11, 2019 and he screamed, clutching his head, realizing he was losing his mind.

"Barry, you can't run away from your own mind, at least not without considerable pain. Then again, you're always trying to run away from your problems, aren't you?" Ramsey taunted as Barry groaned, as if he was about to have a mental breakdown. "Then again, you're always trying to run away from your problems, aren't you? You've literally had a newspaper warning of your demise. You've done nothing to change your fate. It's almost like you want to abandon Patty, who you claim to love with all your heart."

"Shut up!" Barry exploded, lunging at Ramsey but then he ended up in a cemetery, where were headstones of all his loved ones and friends he had lost, like his parents, Eddie, Snart, Laurel, H.R. and Stein and his own daughter.

"This isn't real." Barry whispered, staring at the graves in horror.

"These deaths were real." Ramsey said as Barry turned and breathed out in horror to see a headstones with his own name carved in. "None of them had to die. Join me and you'll never have to."

Suddenly, in front of Barry appeared a door as he opened them to see a crib with a baby in a nursery room as Barry realized it was his daughter he had with Iris and Barry felt love he had not felt in a while, wanting to hold her in his arms before she vanished, disintegrating, just like how his daughter and Thawne had been erased from existence.

"Why are you showing this to me?" Barry asked brokenly as he turned to Ramsey.

"I'm not showing you anything. All of this is coming from you." Ramsey said.

* * *

"No, it's not. No, it's not." Barry whispered as everything around him turned pitch black.

"Look deep within your mind, Barry. This is your mind. Your visions. Your doubt." Ramsey's voice echoed.

"We all die without you." Ralph said as he appeared in front of Barry.

"You leave me forever this time." Patty said.

"You can't protect us." Iris said.

"Your city will burn." Joe said.

Barry turned and paled to see Thawne, wearing Harrison Wells's face. "The Negative Speed Force was too much, even for me, and now, Barry, everyone is dead."

"It doesn't have to be like this, Barry. Here, let me show you." Ramsey said.

In front of Barry then appeared a different news article with headline "FLASH LIVES! SAVES WORLD FROM CRISIS"

"Accept my lifeblood and you could achieve so much more than I ever could." Ramsey said.

* * *

Suddenly, Barry and Ramsey were in an alley, where they saw the Flash use Ramsey's powers and transfuse Ramsey's blood to a dead woman as she came to.

"The power to strike down death. Life eternal. The grand miracle at your command. Save the world and live. Have all you want." Barry said.

* * *

Barry then saw himself and Patty on top of a hill, staring at sunset, holding hands.

"Are you gonna let me go again?" Patty asked the hallucinated Barry.

"Not this time." The hallucinated Barry said as he smiled at her and they kissed.

"It's a beautiful life, Barry. All you have to do is choose it. Choose life." Ramsey said, offering Barry his hand.

Barry stared and considered and was about to take it, but the next thing he knew, 'Nora' had taken Barry in superspeed.

* * *

Barry was back in his childhood home as 'Nora' looked at him pleadingly, while Barry was on bed, clutching his bed, like when he was a little boy having a nightmare.

"Barry. You must gather your strength. Focus. Time is running out." 'Nora' said. "Ramsey's infection is stronger than anything we've ever faced and it's only getting stronger."

Barry breathed out, on verge of tears, as if he was about to have a breakdown. "I think I know why."

"You feel doubt." 'Nora' realized.

"I do." Barry nodded.

"You've answered our call before. It's always been difficult. What's changed?" 'Nora' asked.

"I've lived more. I realized I had been fooling myself that I was ignoring what was in front of me the whole time and refused to take it. It's always been Patty, not Iris. Most of my life has been driven by my past but no wit finally feels like I'm finally living for myself but I don't want to leave my family or my friends. I don't wanna die." Barry sobbed. "I know that's selfish. I'm sorry I let you down."

"Barry, no person is immune to fear and doubt, no matter how brave, that's what makes you human, Barry. But the courage to move forward, even in the face of overwhelming odds, that's what makes you a hero. That's what makes you the Flash." 'Nora' assured.

Barry nodded. "Thank you. I needed to hear that."

"Don't blame yourself." 'Nora' said, stroking Barry's back.

"His lies… they were so convincing." Barry said.

"That's because he never lied." 'Nora' said.

"What do you mean?" Barry asked, turning to her.

"That's what makes Ramsey so dangerous. He manipulates the truth to spread his disease." 'Nora' revealed.

"So… the part about his cells allowing me to save the world from Crisis and still survive is true?" Barry realized.

"Yes. But that path's not for you." 'Nora' said.

"Why not?" Barry demanded.

"Barry, you must understand—"

"That you want me to leave behind everyone I love when there is a way to save me?" Barry snapped as he got up.

* * *

In real time, Barry was in Patty's apartment, lying on the couch, unconscious and sweating as Patty shook him.

"Barry, wake up. Barry!" Patty panicked, while his monitor watch was beeping rapidly before Patty dialed Caitlin's number. "Caitlin, it's Barry, something's wrong with him."

"I know, his vitals are spiking." Frost said as she entered with Cisco through the breach, approaching unconscious Barry.

"He has a fever and he's not healing." Patty said.

Caitlin touched Barry's forehead as she paled. "I've seen this fever before. He's being taken over, right now."

* * *

"Barry, your fever is rising, you must calm down." 'Nora' said as she got up.

"Stop telling me what to do!" Barry exploded.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"Please, tell me you can do something." Patty begged as they put Barry on the stretcher.

"We'll do our best." Caitlin said, injecting a medicine into an IV.

* * *

"All my pain, all my suffering, it's been because of you, because you would rather I be the Flash than have anything that I want!" Barry exploded.

"Barry, please. I am not denying the burden that you've carried but the Speed Force has only ever tried to guide you on this path that you've chosen." 'Nora' pleaded.

"The lightning bolt shot down from the sky and struck me! I didn't choose this!" Barry snapped as he gestured up and then pointed at 'Nora' accusingly. "You decided to change my life, my family's life, my entire future. This was _done_ _to me_!"

"Please, understand, the role you play is vital to balance of all things." 'Nora' tried.

"Oh, stop." Barry grumbled, rubbing his temples.

"There are universal forces at stake, they must be protected." 'Nora' said.

"What about the rest of us?" Barry glared.

"She's right. There are universal forces at stake. It's just a pity she doesn't consider your life among them." Ramsey said.

"Don't listen to him. He wants to possess your form, no matter the cost." 'Nora' said.

"Cost?" Barry scoffed, pointing outside. "All those headstones, those people are dead are because of my connection to you. How many times do I have to suffer for you? When is it your time to suffer?! Do you even feel pain?"

"No… at least not as you know it." 'Nora' said.

"How could it? The Speed Force isn't even human, it doesn't know what it means to be alive, to have a family, to love, it only pretends." Ramsey said.

"Ramsey's infection is infecting your heart, you have to fight it, these aren't your true feelings." 'Nora' said, trying to reach Barry.

"What do you know about the truth? This isn't what you look like." Barry said, glaring at the Speed Force that had taken his mother's form as he looked around, scoffing. "This isn't my old bedroom. It's a trick. This is you manipulating me, so I'll do what you want."

"That's not true, I care about you." 'Nora' pleaded.

"All it cares about is using you." Ramsey said.

"Barry, you must listen to me—" 'Nora' tried to reach him.

"No, I don't! You're not my mom, you're the reason I buried her!" Barry plunged his hand into 'Nora' as she gasped and fell down, crying and as Barry looked into her terrified face, he had a flashback of Thawne murdering Barry's mother.

Ramsey raised his hand and stuck 'Nora' to a wall with his blood and put a gag on her.

"The Monitor, Thawne, the Speed Force, for too long, others have used you. Take command of your life! Forever." 'Ramsey' said, offering Barry his hand.

* * *

"Come on, Barry…" Patty whispered, holding Barry's hand, while his vitals were spiking before Cisco rushed in with Velocity-X serum and injected Barry with it as yellow lightning pulsed through him.

* * *

Ramsey disappeared as 'Nora' was freed.

"I'm sorry. It's the only way to survive." Barry sobbed, holding 'Nora' by her arms.

"We don't have much time until he returns." 'Nora' said as they heard someone banging on the door, who clearly was Ramsey. "Barry, look at me. Accepting Ramsey's blood would save your body from the coming Crisis but not your soul. You would lose the best of you: your joy, your passion, your light, the part of you that Patty loves."

"Don't listen to it. It lies." Ramsey said as he grabbed Barry by his arm as Ramsey's blood was covering it.

'Nora' reached for Barry and held his other arm as the Speed Force pulsed through it.

"Only you can defeat this, Barry." 'Nora' said.

"The choice is yours." Ramsey said as Barry screamed as both sides were fighting to take control of him.

* * *

Barry woke up on the stretcher as Cisco, Caitlin and Patty sighed in relief.

"You beat it." Cisco said.

"Took me a while, but, yeah, I beat it." Barry nodded.

* * *

"It was like being back in prison, only locked up in my own mind. All the terror I felt, the horrible things I saw, they were all there, buried inside me, just waiting to come out the whole time. Took a lot to win, everything that makes life worth living." Barry smiled at Caitlin, Cisco and Patty. "Thank you."

"You deserve some credit." Cisco said.

"Come on, sentient infection that not even speed-healing can cure and you beat it." Patty said.

"Well, it's not over yet, so, let's get back to work." Barry said, getting up.

"Whoa, shouldn't you rest?" Patty said, holding him down.

"Crisis will be here in less than 36 hours. We have to find Ramsey and stop him and make sure that there's still a world to save." Barry said.

* * *

Barry was at the computer in Cortex, typing on computer.

"Barry, don't you think you could work on the maintenance later?" Patty asked.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Barry asked and Patty felt the hair on the back of her neck get up as her detective instincts turned on and she carefully backed away.

"OK, I'll let you get back to work." Patty said as she was turning around to face Iris, who had entered, Cisco and Frost.

"I heard about Barry, how is…" Iris stopped, when they saw the terrified look in Patty's eyes.

"Guys. Has Barry ever done maintenance of S.T.A.R. Labs all on his own?" Patty whispered.

"No. Why?" Cisco asked, confused but the second he let the question out, it hit them all, sharing horrified looks as they slowly turned to Barry.

"That's not Barry." Iris realized.

"Careful, guys." Patty warned as Cisco and Frost slowly approached Barry.

"Hey. Barry. Everything OK?" Cisco asked, reaching for Barry but then, Barry whirled on them with his eyes pitch black as he snarled like a zombie and sped off with black lightning, knocking them all out.

* * *

_**Central City** _

The Flash, now with pitch black eyes and veins covering his face, entered a warehouse, kneeling in front of Ramsey.

"Welcome, my blood brother." Ramsey said as Dark Flash knelt in front of him. "I am the world's salvation, come to save it from all that ails it. Soon, the entire world will embrace… Bloodwork!"

Dark Flash shared Ramsey's sadistic grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you guys might be annoyed I showed some WA things like Nora West-Allen in Barry's nightmare but it was crucial for Barry to go through his nightmares, like in 6x07 but hope you liked the other changes I made in Barry's nightmare.
> 
> So, what do you guys think?
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have been enjoying this and want for me to continue.


	7. Ramsey's last stand

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Flash desperately tries to save Barry and the whole city from Ramsey's infection before preparing for the upcoming Crisis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or the CW TV shows Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl or any other characters or elements pertaining to the mentioned franchises

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"Are you guys OK?" Frost asked as everyone groaned, slowly getting up in their feet.

"Yeah." Iris said, taking deep breaths. "I don't understand. That wasn't Barry."

"I'm afraid it was." Patty said.

"Ramsey turned him into one of his Blood Brothers." Frost explained.

Cisco rushed to the wall and opened a compartment, revealing a keyboard and a lever. Cisco typed in some commands and pulled the lever as a barrier dome formed around S.T.A.R. Labs.

" _Babel Protocols initiated._ " The computer said.

"What's Babel Protocols? I thought that was just some defense stuff that you added to Barry's suit." Frost said.

"That was version one. Version 2.0 puts up a force field around S.T.A.R. Labs. Nothing gets in, nothing goes out, not even our comms. I built them just in case…" Cisco swallowed as his worst nightmare had come true. "Just in case the Flash ever went dark."

"Barry said that Ramsey gave him a choice." Iris whispered, still in shock.

"Why would he choose to become one of Ramsey's lackeys?" Patty asked, not understanding.

"Maybe he decided that eternal life was better than dying in Crisis." Frost noted.

"Ramsey's using Barry and whatever he's having him do, he's got a plan." Cisco said as everyone shared terrified looks.

Patty reached for her radio and tried to tune into any frequency she could. "Maybe, if I go analog, I can find out what's going on in the city." She looked at everyone, confused. "Ramsey could've had Barry kill us as soon as he woke up. Why didn't he?"

"I don't know but don't count us out yet, you know that tech I've been working on?" Cisco showed them a small device on a gauntlet. "Meet the photon emitter."

"So what, you built a ray gun?" Frost asked.

"It's not a ray gun, it's a weapon that can deliver megadoses of photon radiation, the same kind of radiation typically administered to cancer patients." Cisco explained.

Patty caught up to Cisco's thoughts. "You think it can destroy Ramsey's sentient infection?"

Cisco nodded. "If I can get close enough to blast him, he should revert back to his human form. He'd still have HLH, but at least he wouldn't be a gooey zombie overlord anymore."

"What about everyone else that has been infected, would they be cured?" Iris asked.

Cisco nodded. "Yes. They'd lose the goo, they'd go back to normal. But, since Ramsey's the only one that can create more Blood Brothers, I say we hit him first, then Dark Flash."

"Cisco, are you sure it's gonna work?" Patty asked.

"Patty's right, have you tested it?" Iris asked.

"Well, I haven't even finished building it, so, no, I haven't tested it." Cisco admitted.

"Cisco, are you crazy?! You want to shoot Barry with some powerful energy device that you've never tested?!" Patty snapped as she and Iris shot him incredulous looks.

"Patty, this is the only plan we have." Cisco said.

"No, Patty's right, this could kill Barry, Cisco." Iris countered.

Suddenly, Patty's radio went off. " _Hello? Anyone there? This city's being overrun, I'm using a police officer's radio. He's turning into some kind of a monster. His eyes are black—_ "

All that followed was crackling as the transmission ended.

"Oh, my God…" Patty whispered.

"Ramsey's spreading his infection." Frost realized.

"That's why he took down communication citywide. Caitlin once said Ramsey's infection indicate he needs his victims to be afraid before he attacks them." Cisco realized.

* * *

**_Central City Citizen_ **

Cecile sensed something terrible happening as lights flickered before Lisa entered. "Is Cisco here?"

"No, why?" Cecile asked.

"I don't know, he's not answering my calls and I haven't been able to reach S.T.A.R. Labs." Lisa explained before lights went dark and they heard snarling outside. Lisa and Cecile took a peek and widened their eyes to see a man with black veins on his face.

"Does he look like Mitch Romero?" Cecile whispered.

"Who?" Lisa asked as Cecile pulled her in.

"Do you remember that guy that Ramsey turned into a Blood Brother?" Cecile asked and Lisa nodded. "Well, Joe said he looked just like that."

The snarling outside got louder and they backed away from the door as they saw more Blood Brothers outside.

"We need to find a way out of here and get to S.T.A.R. Labs." Lisa said.

* * *

**_Central City_ **

"Remember, these people are innocent! Nonlethal force only!" Joe ordered the CCPD was trying to fend off Ramsey's Blood Brothers but were being quickly overwhelmed.

"Your efforts are in vain, Captain. I'm going to transform this city by dawn and you can't stop me." Ramsey said.

"Stand down, Dr. Rosso." Joe said, aiming his gun at Ramsey.

"Rosso's my human name, and he had human plans. My name is Bloodwork now and I am not alone." Ramsey said as Dark Flash appeared, bringing to him a terrified woman, much to Joe's shock.

"Flash, this isn't you. Whatever happened to you, we will fix it." Joe said.

Dark Flash neared Joe. "It's humanity that needs fixing."

Frost went out of a breach and stared in horror to see Ramsey kill the woman, impaling her with a spike he had formed with his hand.

"Why would you let that happen?" Joe asked, turning to Dark Flash.

"Because this isn't Barry anymore." Frost said as she glared at Ramsey. "Ramsey, whatever the hell your plan is, we will stop you."

"I've already done it. I've cured death… but not for you." Ramsey said, smirking at Frost before turning to his Blood Brothers. "Continue our mission. Kill them."

Ramsey's Blood Brothers started to surround Joe and Frost, snarling.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

" _We've got another 207 downtown. All available units, respond._ " An officer called out on Patty's radio.

"207 is an abduction and in last five minutes I've heard ten of those." Patty said.

" _Patty. I know you're listening. Meet me where I saw how beautiful you are. Where you helped me see again._ " Dark Flash said and Patty stared.

"Patty, don't, it's a trap." Iris shook her head.

"Iris is right, that might sound like Barry, it might even look like him but that is Dark Flash." Cisco said.

"I can't just turn my back on him." Patty protested.

"We don't even have comms. It's too risky." Cisco said.

"Look, Patty, I understand how you're feeling but there's no guarantee you're gonna make it back alive or that Ramsey's not gonna infect you too or worse." Iris said.

"If the emitter doesn't work on Ramsey, I get to come back and try something else but you… it's suicide." Cisco said.

Patty took a breath. "If it was you instead of me, would you turn your back on him?"

Cisco and Iris considered before giving in as Patty picked the interdimensional extrapolator and opened a breach.

* * *

_**Central City** _

Patty ended up on a plaza, where she and Barry kissed for the first time as she faced the Dark Flash.

"Barry?" Patty asked.

"Yes… and so much more." Dark Flash said in Ramsey's voice as he turned around and Patty shivered to look into his pitch black eyes.

"Ramsey…" Patty whispered.

"Neat little trick, huh? Don't you see now, Patty?" Ramsey said. "My control over my Blood Brothers and sisters is absolute. As more cured souls accept my lifeblood, they become extensions of one collective body, mine."

"What do you want from me?" Patty asked, trying to keep her tone leveled and not let fear get the better of her.

"To offer you a chance. Barry would want you to follow him down this path he chose. The path of life." Ramsey said.

"You're no savior. You're a destroyer." Patty sneered. "You're taking away from innocent people what makes their lives meaningful." She looked into Barry's eyes as she neared him. "Barry, I know you're in there. You're stronger than this. You need to fight this. Come back to me. Please." She reached with her hand.

Dark Flash seemed to consider before he grabbed Patty by her throat.

"Why would Barry come back to you? You have left him once and he decided to let you go! Why would he ever care about you again?!" Ramsey said as Dark Flash vibrated his hand, about to plunge it to Patty's chest as she closed her eyes, awaiting her end before Barry pulled away. "In good time. This is not over. Trust me, Patty."

Dark Flash sped off as Patty took deep breaths, looking terrified.

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Patty returned through the breach, looking broken.

"Patty, I'm so sorry." Iris whispered, hugging Patty, who was on verge of tears.

"I piggybacked the radio on the extrapolator. We heard everything. I'm sorry." Cisco said.

"I'm not giving up on him." Patty pulled away.

"Patty, he could've killed you." Iris protested.

"So, what, am I just supposed to quit?" Patty snapped.

"I didn't say that but you need to pull yourself together!" Iris snapped back, holding Patty by her shoulders.

"Iris is right, if we're gonna take down Bloodwork and Dark Flash, we need to do it with the photon emitter." Cisco said.

"You haven't even tested it yet." Patty said.

"We have no time." Cisco said.

"I can't believe it's gonna end like this! If I'm gonna lose Barry, it's gonna be because he saves this world, not help Ramsey destroy it!" Patty exploded.

"Patty. This is the moment he prepared us for." Cisco said, looking broken.

"Guys. We still have four hours. We can figure something out. No matter what happens, Barry is our friend and someone we care about. My brother." Iris said, looking hopeful as she turned to Patty. "Someone you love."

"He was. And he was my best friend. And no one is giving up on anybody because there is _nothing left_ to give up on." Cisco said lowly. "He's gone, guys. He was always gonna leave us and whether or not the emitter works, it's not gonna change that."

The atmosphere turned solemn, with Patty on verge of tears and Iris didn't look any better.

"The emitter's almost ready. And when it is, I'm gonna use it on Bloodwork and I'm gonna use it on Dark Flash." Cisco said, tinkering with the emitter.

* * *

_**Central City** _

Joe and Frost were being overwhelmed by the Blood Brothers and sisters before Frost clapped her hands and the following frost blast knocked them all on the ground as Joe groaned, holding his wound before Frost froze it, healing it.

One of the Blood Sisters got up but Allegra appeared, whacking her in the face with a pipe. "Get the hell away from her."

"Allegra!" Frost smiled.

"Frost! Is Captain West OK?" Allegra asked.

"No. We need to get the hell out of here. Let's go." Frost said as she pulled out her extrapolator and opened a breach.

* * *

_**Central City Citizen** _

Lisa and Cecile ran away from Ramsey's Blood Brothers to an emergency exit before Lisa barred the door.

"That's not gonna hold them for very long." Cecile said.

"We're never gonna make it to S.T.A.R. Labs, it's ten blocks away from here." Lisa panted out.

"We can do it. Let's go." Cecile assured.

* * *

_**Central City** _

"Rise, my Blood Brother and sister. Now you will never die." Ramsey said as he touched the incapacitated Blood Siblings as they got up.

Cisco went out from a breach and fired his photon emitter at Ramsey, who groaned in pain. "Feel the burn, Bloodwork!"

Suddenly, Dark Flash sped in and knocked Cisco down, smashing the photon emitter in the process.

Ramsey then grabbed Cisco by his throat as Cisco choked out. "Is that all you've got, Mr. Ramon? Too bad. My lifeblood is a gift. Are you ready to receive it?" He then smirked as he let Cisco go, getting an idea. "No. You have another purpose to serve. The reckoning is near. My army is almost ready to march on S.T.A.R. Labs."

"What the hell do you want with S.T.A.R. Labs?" Cisco demanded as he caught a breath.

"Boom!" Ramsey closed his hand in a fist and then opened.

"The particle accelerator." Cisco realized, staring at Ramsey in horror.

"The very tech you helped to create will be the vessel carrying my glorious cure. Soon, all of Central City will be granted eternal life, and I choose you, Mr. Ramon, to be my messenger." Ramsey said as Cisco breathed out. "Go, tell your team the great S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator is ready to fulfill its true purpose. Salvation is nigh."

"An ass-whipping is nigh, pal and you're gonna lose, Ramsey. You're gonna lose." Cisco sneered defiantly.

"Plucky right up until the end. I knew I picked the right guy." Ramsey smirked as he called into the sky. "Patty! If you are listening, I'm coming to you!"

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Patty stared in horror as she looked at the computer.

* * *

Few moments later, Patty, Cisco and Iris were examining the footage from earlier.

"Dark Flash hacked the particle accelerator and preparing it for Ramsey." Patty said.

"That's why he was pretending to be Barry." Iris realized. "But why?"

"If Ramsey drops even just a tiny amount of his blood into the core and it explodes, the infectious cells will aerosolize and it would affect all of Central City in seconds. All you'd have to do is take a breath." Cisco said.

A moment later, a breach opened, with Frost and Allegra entering and Joe leaning onto them, groaning.

"Dad!" Iris exclaimed.

Frost put Joe on the stretcher and used her powers to close his wound.

* * *

"For the record, both our plans failed." Iris said.

"Yeah." Cisco said, looking beaten.

"It's not too late. Barry chose you for a reason. Don't doubt yourself, Cisco." Iris assured.

Cisco then frowned.

"What is it, Cisco?" Patty asked.

"Something Ramsey said. 'I knew I picked the right guy.' Barry said those words." Cisco then widened his eyes in realization. "Barry said those exact words when he made me team leader. Ramsey could've infected me. He could've killed me. But he didn't. Instead, he just did a complete 180 for no reason."

"And outside the S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry told me, 'I'm coming to you.' When I went to confront him earlier, I begged him to come back to me." Patty remembered.

"What if Barry's still alive somewhere inside Dark Flash?" Iris realized, catching onto their thoughts.

"Then he may be telling us what to do." Patty nodded.

"We gotta take down Bloodwork." Cisco said before they heard an alert and turned to the screen to see Ramsey and Dark Flash outside S.T.A.R. Labs.

* * *

"I have arrived to fulfill my destiny and yes, my army is coming." Ramsey said.

"Patty. Iris. Cisco. Let the light in." Dark Flash said.

* * *

Cisco smirked. "I think I just figured out Barry's plan… and he just told us the next step."

"We need to lower the defenses. Let them in." Iris said.

"Barry wants light, we'll give him light." Patty smirked as Cisco typed in the commands and lowered the barrier outside S.T.A.R. Labs.

* * *

"Find the humans who rejected my lifeblood and kill them." Ramsey ordered as he and his Blood Brothers entered S.T.A.R. Labs and were in the Speed Lab.

* * *

"You want me to do what?" Allegra demanded as she was in the infirmary with Frost and Joe, talking with Cisco over the intercom.

"Barry's plan is to let the light in. It isn't for Ramsey to spread his infection to the city, it's for you to spread the antidote, with one hell of an UV blast." Cisco said, making the calculations on a table.

"But I can't do that." Allegra protested.

"Don't worry, I've done all the calculations, I'll walk you through the whole thing, just get to the Pipeline now!" Cisco ordered.

* * *

In the Speed Lab, Dark Flash accessed the intercom as Ramsey spoke up through the P.A., his voice echoing throughout the whole S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Good evening, Team Flash. I have tried repeatedly to bestow upon you eternal life, yet you've refused. So now, instead of continuing to offer you the gift of life, I've ordered my Blood Brothers to take it from you. Now as you run for your worthless lives, do keep in your mind that your leader, Flash, belongs to me now. I have his access codes, his handprint, his knowledge. My objective will be achieved." Ramsey said as everyone felt chills sent down their spines.

* * *

Dark Flash accompanied Ramsey to the Pipeline, where Ramsey poured some of his blood into a tube leading into the Pipeline.

"Bring me Patty, Iris and Cisco." Ramsey ordered and within a moment, Dark Flash sped off and returned, throwing Iris and Cisco on the ground and grabbing Patty by her throat, choking her. "I want you to know the scope of your failure. My lifeblood is circling the accelerator and when it gathers enough speed, it'll collide with the energy side and the resulting collision will cure the city… and you."

"Barry… I trust you." Patty whispered.

Dark Flash's face twitched as he grunted.

"What are you doing? Kill her!" Ramsey ordered.

"Barry, I know you're in there. You need to fight this." Iris said, trying to reach him.

Dark Flash spasmed, letting Patty go as Ramsey reached with his arm and clenched his fist and Dark Flash froze.

"We are one, you and I." Ramsey said as Dark Flash knelt to him. "It's pointless to fight it. I know you want to execute my will. I can feel it inside you, Flash." Dark Flash seemed to relax and give in as Ramsey smiled in satisfaction. "Much better."

Patty picked a pulse rifle and shot Ramsey as he fell down, with Dark Flash and Cisco typed some commands to the computer.

* * *

Frost and Allegra walked down the corridor before facing more of Ramsey's Blood Brothers.

"Get ready to run." Frost said as she formed ice brass knuckles in her fists.

"What are you gonna do?" Allegra asked.

"What I do." Frost said, engaging Ramsey's Blood Brothers.

* * *

Dark Flash was on the ground, spasming, with Patty and Iris aiming their weapons at him.

"Barry…" Patty whispered from seeing Barry in pain.

"We have only five rotations before collision." Cisco said.

"How long is each rotation?" Iris asked.

"A few seconds, if we're lucky." Cisco said grimly. "Allegra, where the hell are you?"

"Right here!" Allegra said as she entered with Frost.

"When I open this door, you need to hit these particles with all the UV rays you got." Cisco ordered and Allegra nodded.

Cisco opened the door as Allegra entered the Pipeline.

"You got this. Don't hold back." Frost assured.

"One rotation left… now!" Cisco ordered.

Allegra charged her hands and fired a big UV blast into the particle accelerator as it collided with Ramsey's blood and the atomic particle and the following explosion of energy covered the entire Central City.

* * *

In the corridor, Ramsey's incapacitated Blood Siblings came to, looking normal and looking confused.

* * *

_**Central City** _

Cecile and Lisa were running from Ramsey's Blood Siblings down the street, with Nash helping them fend them off before the following pulse of energy knocked them down.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

Patty neared the knocked out Barry as his eyes opened and turned from pitch black to normal.

"Barry?" Patty asked as Barry smiled at her.

"It's me." Barry assured as they sighed in relief and helped him on his feet.

"Hey, uh, where's the scary guy that tried to kill us all?" Frost asked as they noticed that Ramsey had managed to escape.

"He won't get far." Barry said.

* * *

_**Central City** _

"I won't be denied!" Ramsey said as he lifted an officer in the air, about to infect him.

The Flash sped in and saved the officer. "Alright, stay here." He turned to face Ramsey. "You can't control me anymore and I'm not gonna let you hurt anyone else."

Ramsey sighed in frustration. "For the last time, I am trying to save everyone! Don't you understand? You're not the hero here, I am!"

Ramsey suddenly turned into a giant zombie-like humanoid monster as he knocked the Flash away. The Flash recovered and threw lightning, making Ramsey stagger back. The Flash circled around Ramsey, delivering a series of punches before hitting him hard in the chin, knocking Ramsey down.

"Cisco, you with me?" The Flash reached out for his comms.

"Always. Babel's been lifted, comms are up. We are back." Cisco said.

"What do we have that can hold Ramsey?" The Flash asked.

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"After Mitch Romero, we know a Pipeline cell won't work." Cisco said.

"The MAC. It contained Chester's black hole energy." Iris remembered.

"Ramsey should be a piece of cake then." Patty said as she turned to the mics. "Barry, keep Ramsey busy for a few minutes, we have an idea!"

* * *

_**Central City** _

Ramsey knocked the Flash away as he crashed against a car. "Not a problem."

The Flash dodged as Ramsey formed a scythe in his hand and smashed the top of the car.

"Stay down!" Ramsey said as he used his blood to stick the Flash's hands to the car and was about to finish him off. "Any last words before your death?"

"I just want to enjoy the time I have left." The Flash said.

"I felt the same way." Ramsey froze as he turned his head to see his deceased mother Rachel. "My beautiful boy…" She said Ramsey reduced himself to his human form as he neared Rachel and she looked at him hurtfully. "Ramsey. What have you done? My son… I've missed you so much."

"Mom? How is this even possible?" Ramsey asked, not believing his own eyes.

"I brought her. You entered my mind to bring out that doubt that was hidden inside. I let you infect me, so I could return the favor and bring out yours." The Flash said.

"Impossible. I have no doubt. Only conviction." Ramsey said firmly, also his resolve seemed to shatter.

"Ramsey. I would give anything to have just one more day with my mom. You have that chance right now. Listen to her." The Flash said.

Ramsey looked conflicted as he turned to Rachel, who held him by his cheeks. "He's right. You were born to heal but you've become an angel of destruction."

"No. This isn't happening. This isn't real." Ramsey shook his head in denial.

"My dear son… you wanted so desperately to save me. Now let me save you from yourself." Rachel said in a soothing manner.

"I just wanted to help them all." Ramsey said lowly.

The Flash phased his hands and freed himself as he grabbed Ramsey in superspeed…

* * *

_**S.T.A.R. Labs** _

…to S.T.A.R. Labs into the MAC as Cisco turned on the containment cell.

"No!" Ramsey shouted as he tried to get out but was blocked by the energy field and looked around. "She was wrong! I was born save the world!" Patty helped the Flash on his feet as Ramsey smiled at them. "I still can. Can you hear me, Flash? I was chosen to save the world and when I escape these chains, I will complete my destiny. And you will all accept my cure."

"Containment protocol's holding. It works." Cisco said.

"It's over." Patty sighed in relief as she hugged Barry.

"Now it's time for our next fight." Barry said, returning the hug.

* * *

_**Central City** _

Nash was in the underground, examining the door as it glowed and Nash then saw a series of images and his eyes widened. "Oh, my…" He then ran off.

* * *

_**Later, S.T.A.R. Labs** _

"Lyla says Ramsey is officially in A.R.G.U.S. custody." Cisco said.

"And I called the local hospitals, Ramsey's infection doesn't seem to have any long-lasting effects." Iris said.

"So… everyone's gonna be OK?" Allegra asked.

"Save for Ramsey, Frost ran some tests and… well, there's no way to reverse what happened to him." Patty said and they felt some sympathy for the good man he had been but it was his choice to become a monster.

"Joe's resting in the lounge and I think I'm going to go check in on him." Cecile said.

"Are you OK, Barry? Honestly, the Dark Flash freaked me out." Patty asked as she turned to him worriedly.

Barry leaned onto the table, looking disturbed. "I knew what was happening but I couldn't stop it. Honestly, it took everything I had just to keep from hurting you, guys. But as the night went on, I could tell I was getting to him, I could feel him doubting himself more and more." He then turned to Allegra. "Thank you. You saved the city."

"Right back at you." Allegra smiled before turning to Frost. "But you should thank Frost. She's the badass."

"I always knew you were gonna pull through this." Patty said, holding Barry's hand. "Together, we can pull through anything. And we're not gonna let anything stop us. I don't care if you vanish in the Crisis. I'm with you right until the end."

Barry nodded as he turned to everyone. "Patty's right. Whatever the Crisis brings us, it can't change what we mean to each other. It can't erase what's in our hearts. As long as we hold onto that, we've beaten Crisis before it even begins."

"Guys! It's here! It's coming!" Nash yelled as he burst in and the realization hit them all as they turned to the clock as it was seconds to midnight and the moment it showed midnight, the sky outside turned red as they turned to the windows.

The Crisis was coming… and now, they were facing their greatest challenge ever as Barry and Patty looked at each other, holding hands. Whatever happened, they would face it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't have Nash let the Anti-Monitor out and become the Pariah, since I find it a little dumb and feels strange that someone as powerful as Anti-Monitor was locked away in antimatter universe behind a door conveniently on Earth-1, so for the sake of this story, the door that Nash had found, were more like "a window" to the antimatter universe, something similar to what happened in COIE, since in the comic books and I will explain that, when I get to my version of COIE, it was Pariah, who woke up both the Monitor and Anti-Monitor, starting the Crisis and I have different plans for Nash here.
> 
> And this ends the Flash part and I'm gonna be planning out my Arrow story first before I start to write it and then I'm gonna plan out my version of Crisis of Infinite Earths.
> 
> Please review and let me know if you have enjoyed the story to its end.
> 
> With regards
> 
> Bl4ckHunter


End file.
